Carlos Sainz topped the first and only practice session for the 2024 US Grand Prix in Austin with teammate Charles Leclerc in second and Max Verstappen third.
It was a decent session for Ferrari as they have not brought any upgrades this weekend while Red Bull have and triple Formula 1 champion, Verstappen, seemed happier with his car and while he was only third, it should be noted that he set his best time on the Soft tyres was done 20 minutes earlier than his rivals.
Lando Norris in the heavily upgraded McLaren was fourth fastest with Oscar Piastri fifth fastest in the sister car as it seems the Woking squad are keeping their powder dry and focused on collecting data.
Mercedes, on the other hand, had a terrible session in a comprehensively updated W15 with numerous off-track moment for Lewis Hamilton and George Russell, sixth and seventh respectively.
Kevin Magnussen was eighth ahead of Fernando Alonso in ninth and Yuki Tsunoda in tenth. Liam Lawson was 13th fastest.
Next up is Sprint qualifying which should be interesting given the Medium tyre is mandatory in its first two stages - SQ1 and SQ2 - and notably only Valtteri Bottas tried that tyre out in FP1.
With the new track surface, Sprint qualifying will be the session to watch.
Buildup towards FP1
After what was a mini-summer break, F1 returned, and this time for the US Grand Prix in Austin, kicking off the final part of the 2024 season with six races out of which three will run under the Sprint format.
This weekend will be a Sprint, which will make for an interesting weekend end as teams will be bringing upgrades they have been working on since the Singapore Grand Prix but will only have FP1 to set the cars up and try to understand the new parts.
But the eyes will be on title contenders, Red Bull Racing and McLaren, as the former plan an important upgrade to try and catch up with the latter.
Red Bull have a new floor edges and coke/engine cover as a continuation to previous upgrades that saw them slightly improve.
McLaren's upgrade is more substantial: New front wing, new suspension, new front brake duct and low cooling brake duct. They also have revised rear brake duct cooling exit with a revised rear suspension fairing and circuit specific beam wing.
However, Red Bull's weekend did not start in the best of ways as the FIA banned a ride height device on their RB20. It would be interesting to see if it will be a case of another "magic brake" ban.
Mercedes and Ferrari also have upgrades this weekend. Mercedes have a major upgrade with an eye on 2025 while Ferrari's new parts will be the final package this season.
Ferrari said their upgrade will be their last, there was no mention of it in the FIA car display documents. Mercedes, however, revealed the following: New front wing, front suspension, floor edge, sidepod inlet, coke/engine over, and floor fences.
On the driver front, the US Grand Prix will be the first without Daniel Ricciardo as Lawson takes over at VCARB and tries to find his feet, hoping he could do as impressive a job as he did in 2023 when he filled in for Ricciardo who broke his hand in practice for that year's Dutch Grand Prix.
The Circuit of the Americas will have a new surface this year, which - while smoothing out some bumps - adds another challenge for the teams to get on top of the Pirelli rubber.
And speaking of Pirelli, they brought the C2 (Hard), C3 (Medium), and C4 (Soft) compounds this weekend along with a special podium cap and trophy.
FP1 Session Highlights
The session started in dry conditions with track temperatures at 38 degrees Celsius while air temperature was at 25 degrees.
No time wasted as the drivers set out on track immediately as soon as the session was given the green light. Norris led the pack and all drivers went out except for Zhou Guanyu and Tsunoda who stayed behind.
The starting tyre? All the drivers were on the Hards.
Moments into the session and Franco Colapinto almost lost control of his Williams at Turn 9. The car snapped but he managed to keep it pointing in the right direction.
Norris and Piastri both have moments at Turns 19 and 12 respectively and under braking, probably due to headwind at the location.
With 12 minutes gone, Pierre Gasly brought out the first Yellow flag, a brief one after spinning at Turn 1. He told his team: "Just lost it on braking.
Hamilton soon after ran wide, also at Turn 1, losing the rear a bit but not to the extent of spinning. He soon had a huge moment after hitting the kerb at Turn 4 going for a 360 spin.
He went back to the pits and asked his team to check the tyres and the floor. He was lucky the run-off area is big at that location.
Russell had a moment at the same place but not as dramatic as Hamilton. Russell then spun at Turn 1.
And going back to the aforementioned Ferrari upgrade that did not show in the FIA car display documents, there was none after all. It seems they opted against it.
Halfway into the session, qualifying simulations started with Verstappen the first driver to set a time on the Soft tyres.
He went fastest, over one second faster than the previously best time of Leclerc and all that while complaining about the tyres that were "little bit cold to start the lap".
Sergio Perez in the other Red Bull complained his car rid in low speed corners," he radioed: "The main struggle was the ride in the low speed. I start to bounce a lot more."
With 20 minutes remaining, it was only Verstappen, Perez, and Zhou that sampled the Soft tyre. All other drivers remained on the Hards.
With 15 minutes remaining, Zhou suffered from car trouble and reported loss of power crawling back into the pitlane.
Russell then had another moment, locked up and ran wide at Turn 15. Soon, Albon ran wide at Turn 12 on his first Soft-tyre-run and aborted the lap.
The final ten minutes saw the drivers bolt on the Softs and finally some qualifying runs were underway, but Russell's Mercedes snapped at Turn 1 yet again.
It was an eventful session for Russell who had a too-close-for-comfort moment with Williams' Colapinto. No bent metal though.
The Briton then complained about the ride of his Mercedes getting worse on low fuel.
Piastri had a moment missing the pit entry and had to rejoin the track but he did it in a manner that earned him a black and white flag from the stewards.
Norris kept his Soft tyre run till the very end and did that with flow vis on his MCL38 and ended up fourth fastest.
Practice starts concluded the session.
How they finished
Sainz posted a 1:33.602 to go fastest, 0.021s ahead of Leclerc in second as Verstappen was third, 0.232s further down the road.
Norris was 0.266s off the pace in fourth and 0.040s ahead of Piastri who was fifth in the sister McLaren.
Hamilton was sixth fastest, 0.361s off the pace and 0.130s ahead of Russell who was seventh and in turn, 0.003s ahead of Magnussen in eighth.
Alonso was 0.510s off the best time in ninth and 0.201s ahead of Tsunoda in tenth.
US Grand Prix FP1 Classification
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