Lando Norris topped the first and only practice session for the 2025 United States Grand Prix with Nico Hulkenberg in second as Oscar Piastri was third.
Norris posted a 1:33.294 to go fastest and was 0.255s clear of Hulkenberg who was a surprise second in the Sauber, splitting the McLarens as Piastri, the Championship leader, was third 0.024s further behind.
It has to be noted that the session started off with quite a dusty track that kept evolving over the course of the 60 minutes of running with Hulkenberg posting his lap towards the end which may explain such a high position for a Sauber.
Following the top three, Fernando Alonso was fourth in the Aston Martin, 0.345s off the pace as four-time Formula 1 Champion, Max Verstappen, was fifth fastest, 0.009s behind the Spaniard.
The Dutchman was the first driver to post a lap on Softs and was complaining about his car bottoming out quite hard.
Alex Albon was sixth fastest in the Williams, 0.626s off the top time while Carlos Sainz was down in 19th after dropping out of the session around half time with a gearbox problem on his FW47.
George Russell was seventh fastest in his Mercedes having posted his best time on Mediums and was 0.637s slower than Norris while his former teammate, Lewis Hamilton was eighth fastest for Ferrari, also on Mediums, and 0.034s slower.
Their teammates, Kimi Antonelli was down in 18th while Charles Leclerc was 20th having failed to post a qualifying lap after being hit with gear shift issues and reporting a smell of oil in the car.
Isack Hadjar was ninth as Ollie Bearman was tenth in the Haas as his teammate, Esteban Ocon, in the upgraded car was 11th.
Buildup towards FP1
F1 moved stateside this weekend for the 2025 United States Grand Prix with much anticipation for the battle ahead between the McLaren teammates while Verstappen will be hoping to capitalize on any clashes between them in his attempt to defend his Drivers' Title.
Norris and Piastri clashed in Singapore, which cast a shadow on McLaren's F1 Constructors' Title celebrations and it seems the Briton has accepted the blame claiming there would be repercussions for what he did which we will have to wait and see.
McLaren should be strong at the Circuit of the Americas while a reenergized Verstappen in an improved RB21 is also expected to be competitive as it remains to be seen how Mercedes perform on a weekend that has already been declared as a Heat Hazard, the second time after the Singapore Grand Prix.
Speaking of the race in Singapore, Russell was finally rewarded with a new Mercedes contract which he claimed was a multi-year, so he should be racing with less pressure this weekend.
In terms of tyres, Pirelli have their C1 (Hard), C2 (Medium), and C3 (Soft) tyres available this weekend.
FP1 will be the only practice session this weekend as the United States Grand Prix follows the Sprint weekend format, the fifth this season with two more remaining in Sao Paulo and Qatar.
In terms of car upgrades on Mercedes and Haas have new parts and while the former have a revised rear corner related to air flow over rear suspension elements.
Haas, however, have a considerable upgrade this weekend including new floor body, floor fences, floor edge, revised rear corner winglet, and revised mirror stay.
Several teams will be running special liveries this weekend. Check them out here:
FP1 Session Highlights
The session started in clear dry conditions with track temperatures at soaring at 40 degrees Celsius while the air temperature was 29 degrees.
Being the only practice session this weekend, the teams did not waste any time sending their drivers out once the green light at the end of the pitlane was illuminated with Sprint Qualifying coming next.
Verstappen led the way out on a track that was clearly quite dusty as the Hard tyre was the compound of choice for all the drivers.
Hadjar soon had a moment in the traffic and ran wide at Turn 19. Just before that, the Frenchman had a bizarre moment with his engineer who was warning him about Valtteri Bottas out on track. The driver corrected his engineer who is most probably jet lagged.
Hadjar then had a moment and ran off-tack at Turn 5. Liam Lawson in the sister car had another at Turn 11.
20 minutes into the session and after Verstappen was residing on the top for some time, Hamilton went 0.569s faster and claimed the top spot.
Franco Colapinto then locked up into Turn 1, as Lance Stroll ran wide at Turn 19. Something got loose from the Aston Martin causing the session to be stopped so the marshals can remove the debris from the track.
The session was restarted with 35 minutes remaining on the clock, but it seemed it was over for Sainz who was out of his car and took his helmet off.
The team asked him not to push on the way in informing him there was an issue with the gearbox which needed looking it.
Not ideal with the Spaniard with so limited practice time... He was sixth before he session was over.
Ocon then went straight into Turn 11 ending up in the gravel at the end of the run-off area. He reported: "The brake stayed at 100% all the way."
Then Antonelli had a moment in the traffic in the final corner as he was held up by Albon and was not happy about it.
After that, Hamilton reported: "The throttle pedal is really slippery for some reason." He then ran wide at Turn 11.
The times were not improving as the teams apparently shifted for longer runs after the session restart and with 15 minutes remaining, all the drivers were back in their respective garages preparing for their final runs.
After that, the Soft tyres made their debut as the teams went for some qualifying simulations. Some went for the Mediums which will be used in Sprint Qualifying later - Hamilton, Russell, Antonelli, Lawson, and Hadjar.
Leclerc, soon after, reported gear shift issues and oil smells in his Ferrari. He boxed and was out of the car and could not do a qualifying run.
Hadjar then asked his engineer if the power was ok and the answer was negative...
Tsunoda, on the other hand had a scary one in the esses and went off at Turn 5 while Verstappen said he needed to box as his car was bottoming off quite aggressively.
United States GP FP1 Classification
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