Lando Norris was the quickest at the Sao Paulo GP’s First Practice Session opening another sprint racing weekend.
McLaren’s driver managed to take down Mercedes’ George Russell in the final seconds of FP1.
Once again, the penultimate sprint race weekend of the season means that teams and drivers need to get up to speed quickly due to a lack of practice sessions.
News that Haas’ Kevin Magnussen has been forced to skip a Friday’s FP1 and Sprint Qualifying emerged before FP1 started.
His replacement Oliver Bearman finished the session in sensational third place.
Mercedes engine-based teams (Mercedes’ Russell, McLarens, and Williams’ Albon) topped sheets in the first 10 minutes of FP1 before being dispatched by Red Bull’s Sergio Perez, seeking a ‘form of his life’ if he wants to keep his F1 seat safe.
Early into the session, drivers particularly struggled in Turn 12 by running off wide onto the grass.
Eventually, Max Verstappen would take a provisional lead on the timing tower by setting a first lap time below 1:12s.
Championship contenders McLaren struggled initially with Piastri and Norris doing as best as 10th and 13th respectively.
Along with Max Verstappen, Mercedes drivers seemed to have an early pace on the legendary Interlagos circuit. ‘The Silver Arrows’ duo is just a tenth behind the Dutch driver.
George Russell regained a lead after setting a scorching lap of 1:10.791, however on red-branded supersoft tires.
Drivers waited the last 10 minutes to join leading Russell on supersoft tires. Track evolution and much quicker tires meant that the leaderboard got shaken up for the time being.
Bearman and Albon were unable to jump Russell setting lap times for 2nd and 3rd place respectively.
Lando Norris managed to ‘bag’ a 3rd spot after long struggles throughout FP1.
Max Verstappen would have been the quickest driver after two purple sectors, however, the Red Bull driver decided to head back to the pitlane and end his session.
Sprint qualifying will conclude the first part of the 2024 Sao Paulo GP later on in the day.