F1 results: Ferraris fastest in United States GP practice on Friday

His teammate Carlos Sainz was fastest in FP1 and Leclerc topped FP2, having missed the first session in favour of mandated rookie runner Robert Shwartzman.

United States Grand Prix FP1 results: Sainz fastest from Verstappen

Cla	Driver	Chassis	Laps	Time	Gap	Interval	km/h
1	Carlos Sainz	Ferrari	19	1'36.857			204.908
2	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	15	1'37.081	0.224	0.224	204.435
3	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	20	1'37.332	0.475	0.251	203.908
4	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin	23	1'37.460	0.603	0.128	203.640
5	Sergio Perez	Red Bull	19	1'37.515	0.658	0.055	203.525
6	Fernando Alonso	Alpine	25	1'37.713	0.856	0.198	203.113
7	George Russell	Mercedes	23	1'37.802	0.945	0.089	202.928
8	Pierre Gasly	AlphaTauri	24	1'37.810	0.953	0.008	202.911
9	Lando Norris	McLaren	23	1'37.856	0.999	0.046	202.816
10	Sebastian Vettel	Aston Martin	25	1'38.041	1.184	0.185	202.433
11	Esteban Ocon	Alpine	24	1'38.102	1.245	0.061	202.307
12	Zhou Guanyu	Alfa Romeo	21	1'38.276	1.419	0.174	201.949
13	Alex Albon	Williams	21	1'38.422	1.565	0.146	201.650
14	Yuki Tsunoda	AlphaTauri	23	1'38.898	2.041	0.476	200.679
15	Mick Schumacher	Haas	20	1'38.922	2.065	0.024	200.630
16	Robert Shwartzman	Ferrari	21	1'38.951	2.094	0.029	200.572
17	Alex Palou	McLaren	21	1'39.911	3.054	0.960	198.644
18	Theo Pourchaire	Alfa Romeo	19	1'40.175	3.318	0.264	198.121
19	Logan Sargeant	Williams	23	1'40.325	3.468	0.150	197.825
20	Antonio Giovinazzi	Haas	4	1'43.063	6.206	2.738	192.569
View full results

What happened in United States GP Free Practice 1?

Sergio Perez set the early bar for Red Bull at 1m40.549s on soft tyres just before Haas F1 Team FP1 returnee Antonio Giovinazzi spun into the barriers in the Esses. He overheated the clutch as he struggled to rejoin and was ruled out for the rest of the session, as the car required a new gearbox.

Following a brief red flag, Red Bull's Max Verstappen improved the P1 time to 1m38.272s and then 1m37.462s. In the final 20 minutes, Lance Stroll went fastest for Aston Martin, 0.002s faster, before Sainz set 1m36.857s, which proved to be the quickest time of the session.

Verstappen pushed again and got within 0.224s to retake second, ahead of Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes), Stroll and Perez.

As well as Giovinazzi, who ended up last, the other ‘real’ rookies in this session were Shwartzman (Ferrari) in 16^th, ahead of Alex Palou (McLaren, who didn’t run soft tyres), Theo Pourchaire (Alfa Romeo, time also set on mediums) and Logan Sargeant (Williams).

United States Grand Prix FP2 results: Leclerc fastest from Bottas

Cla	Driver	Chassis	Laps	Time	Gap	Interval	km/h
1	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	37	1'36.810			205.007
2	Valtteri Bottas	Alfa Romeo	37	1'37.525	0.715	0.715	203.504
3	Daniel Ricciardo	McLaren	40	1'37.627	0.817	0.102	203.292
4	Carlos Sainz	Ferrari	26	1'38.232	1.422	0.605	202.040
5	Mick Schumacher	Haas	26	1'39.507	2.697	1.275	199.451
6	Lando Norris	McLaren	26	1'39.547	2.737	0.040	199.371
7	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	26	1'39.575	2.765	0.028	199.315
8	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	26	1'39.698	2.888	0.123	199.069
9	Pierre Gasly	AlphaTauri	26	1'39.840	3.030	0.142	198.786
10	Sergio Perez	Red Bull	26	1'39.852	3.042	0.012	198.762
11	Kevin Magnussen	Haas	24	1'40.084	3.274	0.232	198.301
12	Yuki Tsunoda	AlphaTauri	26	1'40.178	3.368	0.094	198.115
13	George Russell	Mercedes	26	1'40.562	3.752	0.384	197.358
14	Zhou Guanyu	Alfa Romeo	26	1'40.664	3.854	0.102	197.158
15	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin	26	1'40.806	3.996	0.142	196.881
16	Esteban Ocon	Alpine	26	1'41.310	4.500	0.504	195.901
17	Fernando Alonso	Alpine	26	1'41.334	4.524	0.024	195.855
18	Alex Albon	Williams	26	1'41.853	5.043	0.519	194.857
19	Sebastian Vettel	Aston Martin	26	1'41.857	5.047	0.004	194.849
20	Nicholas Latifi	Williams	26	1'42.317	5.507	0.460	193.973
View full results

What happened in United States GP Free Practice 2?

Leclerc topped second practice, where the majority of laptimes were essentially meaningless due to the session being dedicated to 2023 Pirelli tyre testing.

Leclerc was one of three drivers to run two of the 2022 Pirelli compounds – along with Valtteri Bottas and Daniel Ricciardo – because they sat out FP1.

As the rest of the field completed set run plans dictated by Pirelli on two of its prototype compounds for next year – given to the teams in a ‘blind’ allocation, with the drivers required to run both types but unaware which was which during their testing running – that trio duly set the session’s fastest times.

After running on the softs early on, and following a quick trip to the pits to switch to the mediums, Leclerc set the quickest time of FP2 just before the 15-minute mark – a 1m36.810s. Bottas pipped Ricciardo and take second behind Leclerc – 0.715s slower than the Ferrari.

Sainz headed the drivers that only ran the new prototype compounds on 1m38.232s.