Practice report

F1 Brazilian GP: Norris fastest in FP1, Bearman third on return

Norris led a British 1-2-3 in free practice at Interlagos

McLaren driver Lando Norris led Mercedes’ George Russell and the Kevin Magnussen-replacing Oliver Bearman at Haas in the sole practice session for Formula 1’s 2024 Brazilian Grand Prix.

Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton ended up well off the pace for Red Bull and Mercedes respectively for different reasons, while Sergio Perez registered another underwhelming result.

Sauber’s Valtteri Bottas led the pack out of the pits at the start of the one-hour session – with Pierre Gasly behind carving marks into the new track surface with his very low-slung Alpine – as a flurry of different drivers had short stints at the top on the opening runs.

These took place on the medium tyres for all apart from the RB drivers on softs, with Oscar Piastri ending the opening five minutes leading with a 1m13.200s.

Verstappen and Russell then lowered the first place benchmark, before Perez nipped ahead on a 1m12.099s.

Sergio Perez, Red Bull Racing RB20

Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images

That stood as the top spot for a little while, before Russell and then Verstappen got back ahead with 1m11.806s and 1m11.712s efforts respectively.

After a lull in action to allow for initial set-up adjustments, the drivers headed back out on the same rubber as before – with Hamilton climbing the order to sit second with his first timed lap back on track.

Approaching the final third, Russell made an early switch to the softs and duly retook first with a 1m10.791s, but it took a chunk more of the session before any more of the frontrunners did likewise.

When they did in the final 10 minutes, following another period with many cars in the pits, Franco Colapinto jumped up the order to run second – albeit 0.828s slower than Russell.

Into that gap slotted Bearman, Alex Albon, Liam Lawson and Piastri a short while later – the first named just 0.014s slower than Russell’s leading time.

That looked to be toppled when Verstappen went quicker than Russell in sector one on his first flier on the softs in the closing minutes, before the Dutchman lost enough time in sector two to be behind the benchmark and he then aborted the lap in any case.

This confined Verstappen to 15th with his best time coming from the mediums, while Perez did complete a softs run that was only good for 19th in the replaced chassis he is running this weekend.

Russell was finally beaten with Norris’s final lap in the closing minute, as the McLaren driver posted a 1m10.610s, which did not feature Norris’s best final sector on the session.

The final order behind the three Britons at the top of the time ended up as Piastri, Albon and Charles Leclerc, who gained with an improvement on his second run on the same set of softs, as Norris had also done. Carlos Sainz did not and finished seventh, ahead of Nico Hulkenberg, Fernando Alonso and Gasly.

Hamilton did not run the softs and so ended up 16th in a session where there was much driver feedback on savage bumps in the new track surface.

Sao Paulo Grand Prix - Free Practice 1

1 - 2
Cla	Driver	#	Chassis	Engine	Laps	Time	Interval	km/h
1	L. Norris McLaren	4	McLaren	Mercedes	29	1'10.610		219.691
2	G. Russell Mercedes	63	Mercedes	Mercedes	24	+0.181 1'10.791	0.181	219.129
3	O. Bearman Haas F1 Team	50	Haas	Ferrari	30	+0.195 1'10.805	0.014	219.086
4	O. Piastri McLaren	81	McLaren	Mercedes	30	+0.340 1'10.950	0.145	218.638
5	A. Albon Williams	23	Williams	Mercedes	28	+0.345 1'10.955	0.005	218.623
6	C. Leclerc Ferrari	16	Ferrari	Ferrari	31	+0.428 1'11.038	0.083	218.367
7	C. Sainz Ferrari	55	Ferrari	Ferrari	30	+0.490 1'11.100	0.062	218.177
8	N. Hulkenberg Haas F1 Team	27	Haas	Ferrari	26	+0.514 1'11.124	0.024	218.103
9	F. Alonso Aston Martin Racing	14	Aston Martin	Mercedes	26	+0.605 1'11.215	0.091	217.824
10	P. Gasly Alpine	10	Alpine	Renault	27	+0.606 1'11.216	0.001	217.821
11	L. Lawson RB	30	RB	Red Bull	26	+0.691 1'11.301	0.085	217.562
12	Y. Tsunoda RB	22	RB	Red Bull	25	+0.873 1'11.483	0.182	217.008
13	F. Colapinto Williams	43	Williams	Mercedes	31	+1.009 1'11.619	0.136	216.596
14	V. Bottas Sauber	77	Sauber	Ferrari	29	+1.041 1'11.651	0.032	216.499
15	M. Verstappen Red Bull Racing	1	Red Bull	Red Bull	30	+1.102 1'11.712	0.061	216.315
16	L. Hamilton Mercedes	44	Mercedes	Mercedes	30	+1.144 1'11.754	0.042	216.188
17	L. Stroll Aston Martin Racing	18	Aston Martin	Mercedes	26	+1.173 1'11.783	0.029	216.101
18	E. Ocon Alpine	31	Alpine	Renault	26	+1.217 1'11.827	0.044	215.968
19	S. Perez Red Bull Racing	11	Red Bull	Red Bull	28	+1.235 1'11.845	0.018	215.914
20	Z. Guanyu Sauber	24	Sauber	Ferrari	27	+2.273 1'12.883	1.038	212.839
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