Sunny. Dry. Air +26С, highway +53…58С
The Sao Paulo stage was held again with a sprint on Saturday, so there was only one practice, but it was important – within an hour we had to decide on the settings and tires on the new black tarmac, which was installed at the start of the session was heated to 53 degrees.
There was an unexpected change in Haas F1 – Oliver Berman replaced Kevin Magnussen, who was ill, all Friday the team will determine its composition based on the actual situation later during the weekend.
Red Bull decided to help Sergio Perez regain his previous form and assembled a car for him on a different chassis, which had already been used during the season, with the same version of the aerodynamic body kit. The team simply does not have a new chassis at this stage of the season and will receive new aerodynamics later.
The riders started practicing on Medium, but Tsunoda and Lawson almost immediately turned Soft and were preparing for qualifying.
The session went smoothly. In Turn 12, Hamilton almost collided with Sainz, who had slowed down. Hamilton and Sainz later went off track in Turn 4.
At the end of the session, almost everyone switched to Soft to run a short series on little fuel. The protocol was led by Lando Norris, who already rode faster on Friday than last year’s pole.
First part of the free training
| Pilot | Team | Time | Difference | Circles |
| 1. L.Norris | McLaren | 1:10,610 | – | 29 |
| 2. D. Russell | Mercedes | 1:10,791 | +0.181 | 24 |
| 3. O. Berman | Hare | 1:10.805 | +0.195 | 30 |
| 4. O. Piastri | McLaren | 1:10,950 | +0.340 | 30 |
| 5. A. Elbon | Williams | 1:10.955 | +0.345 | 28 |
| 6. S. Leclerc | Ferrari | 1:11,038 | +0.428 | 31 |
| 7. K. Sainz | Ferrari | 1:11,100 | +0.490 | 30 |
| 8. N. Hulkenberg | Hare | 1:11.124 | +0.514 | 26 |
| 9. F. Alonso | Aston Martin | 1:11,215 | +0.605 | 26 |
| 10. P. Gasly | Alps | 1:11,216 | +0.606 | 27 |
| 11. L. Lawson | RB | 1:11,301 | +0.691 | 26 |
| 12. Yu.Tsunoda | RB | 1:11,483 | +0.873 | 25 |
| 13. F. Colapinto | Williams | 1:11,619 | +1,009 | 31 |
| 14. V. Bottas | Sauber | 1:11,651 | +1,041 | 29 |
| 15. M. Verstappen | Red Bull | 1:11,712 | +1,102 | 30 |
| 16. L.Hamilton | Mercedes | 1:11,754 | +1,144 | 30 |
| 17. L. Walk | Aston Martin | 1:11,783 | +1,173 | 26 |
| 18. E. Okon | Alps | 1:11,827 | +1,217 | 26 |
| 19. C. Perez | Red Bull | 1:11,845 | +1,235 | 28 |
| 20. G.Zhou | Sauber | 1:12,883 | +2,273 | 27 |
Source: F1 News
I am Christopher Clyde, an experienced journalist and content writer with a passion for sports. I have been writing about Formula 1 news for the past five years and am currently employed as an author at athletistic.com, one of the top sports websites in the US.
