Norris fastest as Verstappen Brazilian setback confirmed

Lando Norris set the pace in free practice ahead of this weekend’s São Paulo Grand Prix, whilst a grid penalty for Max Verstappen was confirmed. 

The McLaren driver set the quickest time on his final lap in the only practice session of the event, with sprint qualifying taking place in a few hours. 

George Russell was 0.181s behind Norris in second after topping a large portion of the session. Oliver Bearman was a surprise in third, with the Briton replacing Kevin Magnussen. 

Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton did not complete a soft tyre lap, leaving the pair in P15 and P16, respectively.  However, concerningly for Mercedes, Hamilton complained of being in pain. 

McLaren ran a new rear wing during practice which featured a deep scoop, with the Woking-based team being the only title contenders to introduce an upgrade in Brazil. 

Drivers discovery bumpy surface

As the only practice session at Interlagos got underway, all 20 drivers quickly exited the pit lane and started gathering data. 

A noticeable difference was Oliver Bearman being in Kevin Magnussen’s car, something which took place as a result of the Danish driver being ruled-out of the entirety of Friday through illness.

With the exception of the RBs, every driver started the session on the medium compound, with Yuki Tsunoda and Liam Lawson having been on Pirelli’s softs. 

To much surprise, Sergio Perez was the initial pacesetter on a 1:12.099, just under two tenths of a second ahead of Mercedes’ George Russell.

In São Paulo this weekend, the Mexican driver does have a new chassis, whilst Max Verstappen has a new internal combustion engine. 

It is the reigning world champion’s sixth of the season, with only four being in his allotted pool. Due to another illegal ICE having been installed, Verstappen has a five-place grid penalty for the grand prix. 

Since F1 last raced in Brazil, the Interlagos – known officially as the Autódromo José Carlos Pace – has undergone resurfacing. 

This made track time and data gathering even more important, with the surface being much darker than before. Despite the resurfacing, large sections of the circuit remained incredibly bumpy.

As well as grabbing the headlines for a grid penalty, Verstappen also grabbed attention in the first-half of practice. 

He moved ahead of Perez 45 minutes into the session on a 1:11.712, whilst Russell split the Red Bulls following an improved lap.

Bearman surprise

Hamilton jumped ahead of Russell and into second at the 30-minute mark after going 0.042s slower than Verstappen, whilst Alonso impressively went fourth fastest. 

The medium tyres remained on almost every car past the halfway point, highlighting the general target throughout the paddock of gaining long-run data. 

However, the yellow-walled compound were finally dropped by Mercedes with 20 minutes of the session remaining, as Russell went fastest on a 1:10.791 to kickstart a plethora of hot laps. 

Russell was the first of the big hitters to set a soft tyre lap, before the remaining big names were fitted with soft tyres when the session reached its final nine minutes. 

Prior to Norris switching from the medium to the soft compound, he attempted to overtake Perez just prior to the pit-entry, before backing out of the move. 

Sainz’s and Piastri’s initial soft tyre laps were disappointing, and several tenths down on Russell despite the British driver’s time having been set 10 minutes earlier. 

Norris went 0.040s slower than Russell to go third, behind the impressive Bearman who only went 0.014s slower than the Mercedes driver. 

However, there was considerable change to the timesheets in the closing seconds, as Piastri jumped to fourth. Intriguingly, Verstappen backed out of his only soft tyre lap at the final corner.

There was still time for Norris to improve and dethrone Russell, with the McLaren driver having posted a 1:10.610 to go quickest by nearly two tenths of a second.