McLaren driver Lando Norris led Mercedes’ George Russell and the Kevin Magnussen-replacing Ollie 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.
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.
George Russell, Mercedes F1 W15
Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
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 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 time in sector two to be behind the benchmark and he then aborted the lap.
This confined Verstappen to 15th with his best time coming from the mediums, while Perez did complete a soft tyre run that was only good for 19th in the replaced chassis he is running this weekend.
Russell was finally beaten by 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 of the…
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