Carlos Sainz established the speed upon return in lone FP1 of F1 United States GENERAL PRACTITIONER in a sprint weekend break in advance of Charles Leclerc and Max Verstappen.
With all groups bar Ferrari and Williams running upgrades in Austin– as Formula 1 returned to auto racing complying with a three-week break– there was a lot of activity from the minute the thumbs-up began at the end of the pit lane, as the vehicle drivers attempted to obtain their automobiles called in for Sprint Qualifying and Saturday’sSprint Mercedes– running what the group’s Trackside Engineering Director Andrew Shovlin called their “most substantial update of the year”– stood out originally, but also for all the incorrect factors, as very first Lewis Hamilton and after that George Russell endured remarkable draws out on the re-surfaced Circuit of The Americas track.
While the tough tire was favoured by the bulk of groups for the almost all of the operating, with 10 mins to go, a number of the teams made their transfer to softs to check out their one-lap speed– with Sainz quiting the clocks with a 1m 33.602 s, to head Leclerc by simply 0.021 s in the un-upgradedFerraris Max Verstappen took P3 in his updated Red Bull RB20, albeit 2 and a fifty percent tenths adrift of the Ferraris, as his principal title opponent Lando Norris took 4th after waiting till the really last minutes of the session to publish his lap.
Norris headed group companion Oscar Piastri, that provided McLaren a scare after being required to terminate an effort to pit after going in as well warm, with Hamilton and Russell winding up P6 and P7 in Mercedes W15s that looked a handful out on course. Rounding out the leading 10 came Haas’s Kevin Magnussen, Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso and RB’s Yuki Tsunoda.
Nico Hulkenberg was P11 in the Haas VF-24 that was running the group’s single upgrade bundle, while Pierre Gasly got over a very early spin to take P12 in his unique orange-liveried Alpine that births greater than a passing similarity to McLaren’s basic papaya look out on track. Replacing Daniel Ricciardo at RB for the rest of the period, Liam Lawson took P13, in advance of Alex Albon– that withstood a scrappy very first effort on his soft tires for Williams– while Lance Stroll was 15th in the 2nd Aston Martin.
Rounding out the order came Red Bull’s Sergio Perez in P16, in advance of the Alpine of Esteban Ocon, the double Kick Saubers of Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu in P18 and P20, with the 2nd Williams of Franco Colapinto slotting right into P19.
Here’s PU checklist: https://www.fia.com/sites/default/files/decision-document/2024%20United%20States%20Grand%20Prix%20-%20New%20PU%20elements%20for%20this%20Competition.pdf
Here’s Ferrari on Oliver Bearman task FP1: https://x.com/ScuderiaFerrari/status/1847355950027723004
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[Note: The story is as per press release]
