Formula 1’s ‘Autumn break’ officially ended with a Free Practice Session 1 in Austin for the 2024 United States Grand Prix. Returning F1 weekend, which brings back ‘Sprint Weekend’ started with Carlos Sainz as the fastest driver of the FP1
Sainz’s time of 1:31.602 was 21 thousand a second quicker than his teammate Leclerc in 2nd and 2 tenths quicker than Verstappen in 3rd place respectively.
Leaders of the constructor’s standings struggled for most of the session however Norris and Piastri managed to cover the Top 5 for McLaren.
The main topic ahead of the United States GP in Austin is the showdown between McLaren and Red Bull who seek to regain the lead in the constructor’s championship.
The slightly different structure of a race weekend meant that teams were not pushing to their limits and using the softest compound of tires due to an upcoming Sprint qualifying session later on in the day.
Austin’s Free Practice session also marked Liam Lawson’s return to the F1 grid with what seems like a full-season return prolonging into the 2025 season.
The entire grid decided to eliminate ‘rust’ by leaving out on track very early with everyone bar Sauber on hard compound on tires.
Alpine’s Esteban Ocon had a minor spin in turn 1, causing a short yellow flag, which did not disrupt action-less FP1 at the time.
Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton continued the trend, taking a more dramatic spin in the ‘esses section’ of corners 3-4-5-6. Worried, Hamilton effectively asked for the status of W15’s floor. A couple of minutes later, Hamilton’s teammate followed with a less intensive spin in the same section of the track.
Whilst Mercedes’ early struggles in Austin continued, Red Bull and McLaren were still looking for the pace to find, Ferrari made an early lead into the session with Sainz and Leclerc leading timesheets.
Max Verstappen brought out the softest tires and set a lap that was more than a second faster than Ferraris.
Red Bull was the only team on the red-branded soft tires hence were in 1st and 2nd place for a great amount of the 2nd half of the session until they were thrown by Carlos Sainz with 7 minutes to go.
The next session, Sprint qualifying starts three hours after the end of Free Practice 1.