Practice report
Formula 1 Brazilian GP
F1 Brazilian GP: Norris fastest in FP1, Bearman third on return
Norris led a British 1-2-3 in free practice at Interlagos
Alex Kalinauckas
Edited: Nov 1, 2024, 3:44 PM
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Lando Norris, McLaren MCL38
Photo by: Steven Tee / Motorsport Images
McLaren driver Lando Norris led Mercedes’ George Russell and the Kevin Magnussen-replacing Oliver Bearman at Haas in the sole practice session for Formula 1’s 2024 Brazilian Grand Prix.
Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton ended up well off the pace for Red Bull and Mercedes respectively for different reasons, while Sergio Perez registered another underwhelming result.
Sauber’s Valtteri Bottas led the pack out of the pits at the start of the one-hour session – with Pierre Gasly behind carving marks into the new track surface with his very low-slung Alpine – as a flurry of different drivers had short stints at the top on the opening runs.
These took place on the medium tyres for all apart from the RB drivers on softs, with Oscar Piastri ending the opening five minutes leading with a 1m13.200s.
Verstappen and Russell then lowered the first place benchmark, before Perez nipped ahead on a 1m12.099s.
Sergio Perez, Red Bull Racing RB20
Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
That stood as the top spot for a little while, before Russell and then Verstappen got back ahead with 1m11.806s and 1m11.712s efforts respectively.
After a lull in action to allow for initial set-up adjustments, the drivers headed back out on the same rubber as before – with Hamilton climbing the order to sit second with his first timed lap back on track.
Approaching the final third, Russell made an early switch to the softs and duly retook first with a 1m10.791s, but it took a chunk more of the session before any more of the frontrunners did likewise.
When they did in the final 10 minutes, following another period with many cars in the pits, Franco Colapinto jumped up the order to run second – albeit 0.828s slower than Russell.
Into that gap slotted Bearman, Alex Albon, Liam Lawson and Piastri a short while later – the first named just 0.014s slower than Russell’s leading time.
That looked to be toppled when Verstappen went quicker than Russell in sector one on his first flier on the softs in the closing minutes, before the Dutchman lost enough time in sector two to be behind the benchmark and he then aborted the lap in any case.
This confined Verstappen to 15th with his best time coming from the mediums, while Perez did complete a softs run that was only good for 19th in the replaced chassis he is running this weekend.
Russell was finally beaten with Norris’s final lap in the closing minute, as the McLaren driver posted a 1m10.610s, which did not feature Norris’s best final sector on the session.
The final order behind the three Britons at the top of the time ended up as Piastri, Albon and Charles Leclerc, who gained with an improvement on his second run on the same set of softs, as Norris had also done. Carlos Sainz did not and finished seventh, ahead of Nico Hulkenberg, Fernando Alonso and Gasly.
Hamilton did not run the softs and so ended up 16th in a session where there was much driver feedback on savage bumps in the new track surface.
Sao Paulo Grand Prix - Free Practice 1
Main Information Additional Data Driver Info Driver Info
1
-
4
Main Information Additional Data
1
-
2
Cla Driver # Chassis Engine Laps Time Interval km/h 1 L. Norris McLaren 4
McLaren Mercedes 29
1'10.610
219.691 2 G. Russell Mercedes 63
Mercedes Mercedes 24
+0.181
1'10.791
0.181 219.129 3 O. Bearman Haas F1 Team 50
Haas Ferrari 30
+0.195
1'10.805
0.014 219.086 4 O. Piastri McLaren 81
McLaren Mercedes 30
+0.340
1'10.950
0.145 218.638 5 A. Albon Williams 23
Williams Mercedes 28
+0.345
1'10.955
0.005 218.623 6 C. Leclerc Ferrari 16
Ferrari Ferrari 31
+0.428
1'11.038
0.083 218.367 7 C. Sainz Ferrari 55
Ferrari Ferrari 30
+0.490
1'11.100
0.062 218.177 8 N. Hulkenberg Haas F1 Team 27
Haas Ferrari 26
+0.514
1'11.124
0.024 218.103 9 F. Alonso Aston Martin Racing 14
Aston Martin Mercedes 26
+0.605
1'11.215
0.091 217.824 10 P. Gasly Alpine 10
Alpine Renault 27
+0.606
1'11.216
0.001 217.821 11 L. Lawson RB 30
RB Red Bull 26
+0.691
1'11.301
0.085 217.562 12 Y. Tsunoda RB 22
RB Red Bull 25
+0.873
1'11.483
0.182 217.008 13 F. Colapinto Williams 43
Williams Mercedes 31
+1.009
1'11.619
0.136 216.596 14 V. Bottas Sauber 77
Sauber Ferrari 29
+1.041
1'11.651
0.032 216.499 15 M. Verstappen Red Bull Racing 1
Red Bull Red Bull 30
+1.102
1'11.712
0.061 216.315 16 L. Hamilton Mercedes 44
Mercedes Mercedes 30
+1.144
1'11.754
0.042 216.188 17 L. Stroll Aston Martin Racing 18
Aston Martin Mercedes 26
+1.173
1'11.783
0.029 216.101 18 E. Ocon Alpine 31
Alpine Renault 26
+1.217
1'11.827
0.044 215.968 19 S. Perez Red Bull Racing 11
Red Bull Red Bull 28
+1.235
1'11.845
0.018 215.914 20 Z. Guanyu Sauber 24
Sauber Ferrari 27
+2.273
1'12.883
1.038 212.839 View full results
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