Max Verstappen was the fastest in FP1, with Oscar Piastri and Charles Leclerc behind. Meanwhile, Mercedes seemed strong in the race pace simulation.
As the only free practice session of the weekend was just a few seconds from the green light, many drivers had already started to line up in the pit lane, as there was the risk of rain hitting the track.
The first and only free practice session will be key for the teams as it will be the only occasion to prepare the car in the best possible way before the sprint qualifying.
At the start of the session, there was a mix of choices regarding the tires, a few teams chose the hards, others the mediums.
Mercedes started off strong with the hard tires, with George Russell and Lewis Hamilton in P1 and P2. Max Verstappen then placed his Red Bull between the two, even though the times weren’t that fast yet. Meanwhile, Hamilton took back the second spot, just 0.006s behind his teammate. He even improved his lap time later on, going first-fastest.
The teams still didn’t try to work on the qualifying simulations, wanting to focus more on the sprint race and the race.
Charles Leclerc wasn’t happy with the set-up, and the mechanics were working on his front suspension to make a few changes.
Meanwhile, the first key moment of the weekend happened 30 minutes into the session. Verstappen had to stop the car on the main straight as the screen on the steering wheel read “engine fault”, he said.
The session was red-flagged to allow the stewards to bring Verstappen’s car back into the pits. It’s important to underline that Verstappen was already at risk of getting a penalty as he had already fitted the fourth engine on his car, the last allowed by the regulations. It’s not known whether the engine used in FP1 was used or new.
Despite the issues, Verstappen immediately went out on track as soon as the car was checked by the mechanics. It seemed that it wasn’t a major issue for the Dutch driver.
With 15 minutes to go, it was a Mercedes 1-2, with Verstappen and Sergio Perez behind. Then there was Lando Norris ahead of the two Ferraris of Leclerc and Carlos Sainz.
In the last ten minutes, the teams finally focused on the qualifying simulation. Verstappen went fastest, 0.370s ahead of Leclerc and 0.443s ahead of Sainz. Oscar Piastri also improved and put his McLaren 0.276s behind Verstappen.
Russell and Perez found traffic during their first lap. Norris was fastest in the first sector but made a mistake and went wide on the gravel. Hamilton decided not to try the qualifying simulation and kept lapping with used hard tires to simulate the race.
No one improved before the end of the session.