In the solo practice session for the Sao Paulo Grand Prix, Lando Norris beat McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri to take the top spot, but title rival Max Verstappen suffered a set-up problem midway through and finished 17th.
McLaren used only one set of hard tires and one set of medium tires, with Piastri leading on both compounds until the end of the session, with Norris stringing personal bests in sectors one and two and setting a benchmark of 1:09.975 with a final purple split. This was his third performance run on medium tyres, turning a consistent almost 0.3 second lead over Piastri into a 0.023 second advantage.
Piastri set purple in the first sector on his final run, but a slow middle split and an inability to improve in the final sector ruined his chances of getting past Norris and he was relegated to second. The Australian finished the session with purple times in the first two sectors, and his theoretical best lap would have been 0.17 seconds faster than Norris had it been measured in conjunction with the final split of the lap.
Although the McLaren drivers were in a close race, the overall advantage of both on the field was immense, with Norris 0.619 seconds faster than the next non-McLaren driver, Sauber’s Nico Hulkenberg. He took advantage of a tough session for Verstappen and the Ferrari drivers to finish the hour in third place.
Title contender Verstappen spent the session fine-tuning his set-up but was unable to find his preferred balance and was unable to join the McLaren drivers at the top of the timesheets. The Dutchman was ultimately sent out on the soft tire for the qualifying simulation run, keeping the medium tire as a spare for the rest of the weekend, but abandoned the run before completing his first flying lap to return to the pit lane. He switched to used hard and set the fastest time, finishing 17th, 1.393 seconds off the pace, without a representative lap.
Verstappen led both Ferrari drivers, with Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton also in 18th and 19th place after using the hard compound throughout the session. The difference between the two was just 0.033 seconds, but despite Hamilton spinning his car in the closing stages at Melgrugno, he was more than 1.5 seconds off the pace.
Their absence left Hulkenberg in third place, with Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso and second-placed Sauber’s local favorite Gabriel Bortleto in fourth.
George Russell had the next best result in sixth place in the front car, but the Brit was 0.67 seconds slower than Norris.
Pierre Gasly is optimistic in seventh place for Alpine, with the Frenchman saying on the radio early in the session: “I don’t know why the car feels more alive today than any other day in recent months.” His pace was 0.706 seconds off.
Carlos Sainz was eighth in his Williams, ahead of Isaac Hajjar in the Racing Bulls, while Kimi Antonelli in the second Mercedes was 10th.
Liam Lawson was 11th, ahead of Alex Albon, Haas teammate Esteban Ocon, Oliver Bearman, Lance Stroll, Franco Colapinto just re-signed.
Verstappen, Leclerc and Hamilton followed, with Hiroki Tsunoda achieving the position after a disastrous session in which he spun on the exit curb at Desceda do Lago just over 10 minutes into the session, slamming into the barrier and damaging his front wing, front right corner and rear left corner.
The Red Bull driver missed 25 minutes in the garage for repairs before returning on soft tires and set the slowest time of the session, 1.788 seconds off the pace.
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