Perez, Ocon fastest in Brazilian GP practice sessions

Perez was fastest in FP1, held on Friday morning, and Ocon set the pace in Saturday’s FP2, which was run after qualifying but ahead of the sprint race.

Brazilian Grand Prix FP1 results: Perez fastest from Leclerc

What happened in Brazilian GP Free Practice 1?

Perez set the early pace, after teammate Verstappen ran off the road on his opening flyer at Descida do Lago, but the two-time world champion was quickly back on track and took his place at the top of the timesheet with 1m14.104s.

Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas first equalled that, then beat it with 1m13.807s on medium tyres. Running on hards, Verstappen responded with 1m13.646s, taking P1 back by 0.161s. He then lowered that to 1m13.575s.

Perez was first to switch to the soft tyres, unleashing 1m11.853s that Verstappen failed to beat by 0.008s, and Max continued to complain about a lack of grip from the front-end of his car.

Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc jumped to P2 in the closing stages, just 0.004s off Perez and the same amount in front of Verstappen.

Carlos Sainz was fourth quickest for Ferrari, 0.186s off the pace but one thousandth of a second ahead of Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes. The Mercedes of George Russell was sixth fastest, ahead of Sebastian Vettel (Aston Martin), Mick Schumacher (Haas) and Bottas.

Brazilian Grand Prix FP2 results: Ocon fastest from Perez

What happened in Brazilian GP Free Practice 2?

This session occurred on Saturday morning ahead of the sprint event, so it was more about race pace and data gathering than evaluating raw speed.

Ferrari set the early bar, with Leclerc lapping a tenth faster than Sainz. Perez went to the top with 1m15.539s on the hard tyres, a tenth ahead of Hamilton. Russell then took over with 1m15.115s on softs and then lowered the P1 time to 1m14.916s.

Alpine’s Esteban Ocon beat that with 1m14.604s at the halfway point, three tenths clear of Russell.

Perez rose to second in the closing stages on softs, 0.184s off Ocon. Russell stayed third, ahead of Fernando Alonso’s Alpine. Verstappen was fifth fastest, from Hamilton and Pierre Gasly (AlphaTauri). Sprint pole winner Kevin Magnussen was ninth for Haas, while neither Ferrari made the top 10.

Nicolas Latifi suffered a brief off early on at Juncao but continued in his Williams. He was partnered in this session by his replacement next year, Logan Sargeant, who ran in place of Alex Albon to gain a superlicence point.