Max Verstappen set the pace in this weekend’s sole – and only – practice session for the United States GP, as the Red Bull driver led rivals Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton after a busy hour in Austin.
With just 60 minutes left to finalize their setups for the weekend, drivers hit the track in warm conditions to get up to speed as quickly as possible ahead of today’s qualifying.
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After 20 minutes of running, it was Hamilton who set the pace at the start, as his time of 1m 37.394s was enough to put Verstappen ahead by 0.104 seconds on the hard tyre, with the Mercedes driver taking the W14’s updated floor to heart and kidneys checked.
Aston Martin also had a new deficit in FP1, but that wasn’t good news for the Silverstone-based squad as Lance Stroll had to pit for brake problems and Fernando Alonso was also called in for precautionary checks.
Aston Martin later confirmed that Stroll would not take part in the remainder of the session as Lando Norris was fastest. Moments later, his teammate Oscar Piastri had a frantic moment, running through the grass at the exit of Turn 9.
With 15 minutes to go we saw the first drivers exit the pitlane on soft tires while Logan Sargeant and Alex Albon, wearing unique American-inspired liveries on their cars, prepared for some qualifying simulation runs.
Another team showcasing a colorful livery on their car this weekend is Red Bull. Verstappen showed the RB19 has the fastest time with a time of 1:35.912 minutes, while Leclerc was in second place, 0.156 seconds behind the time of the Dutch driver.
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Hamilton was fastest in the first two sectors, but went wrong in the penultimate corner and ended up third ahead of Sergio Perez. Haas is another team with a unique livery this weekend and they also brought big improvements to Austin and Kevin Magnussen impressed many by finishing fifth.
George Russell was sixth in the other Mercedes, while Albon was seventh, ahead of the other Ferrari of Carlos Sainz, the second Haas of Nico Hulkenberg and the Alpine of Pierre Gasly, which rounded out the top 10.
Home favorite Sargeant finished 11th for Williams, ahead of the Alpine of Esteban Ocon, the AlphaTauris of Yuki Tsunoda and Daniel Ricciardo – who was less than a tenth behind his teammate when he made his return after five races due to a broken hand.
Norris and Piastri did not put on soft tires during all their times, and the former was in 15th place for McLaren and the latter in 19th place.
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Alfa Romeo teammates Zhou Guanyu and Valtteri Bottas opted for the soft tires and finished 16th and 17th respectively. Alonso was able to continue driving, but didn’t use the soft tires either and finished 18th, with Stroll bringing up the rear of the field.
The only practice session of the weekend is now complete and the riders and their teams are now preparing for qualifying for the United States GP later today at 4:00 p.m. local time.