SAO PAULO GP – Lando Norris leads Oscar Piastri by a quarter of a second in practice, as they look to have half-second advantage
Lando Norris led a McLaren one-two in practice for this weekend’s Sao Paulo Grand Prix. The Englishman set a 09.975 as the chequered flag dropped, using his medium tyre to put himself just under a quarter of a tenth ahead of his title rival Oscar Piastri. Nico Hulkenberg was third, fifteen years to the day he took his only pole position at Interlagos, but was nearly six tenths behind the two tenths behind the McLaren duo.
McLaren appears to go into this weekend looking to be the favourites, and Norris looks to have regained the upper hand over his teammate after taking the championship lead for the first time since Jeddah in April, a fortnight ago in Mexico City. Many of the questions have been whether that was a decisive blow ahead of what may be a pivotal weekend in the championship.
Hulkenberg was just over a hundredth ahead of Fernando Alonso, the two-time champion, splitting the two Sauber’s after he went a hundredth ahead of Gabriel Bortoleto. There has been circuits this season where Sauber has shown potential and they will be hoping for a strong weekend in Bortoleto’s home city, the first to race at Interlagos since 2018.
George Russell put his Mercedes sixth, the 2022 race winner was three and a half hundredths ahead of Pierre Gasly while Carlos Sainz was five thousandths behind the Alpine. The Englishman had set the early pace before the Mclaren’s started to show their pace in the final ten minutes.
Russell’s teammate, Kimi Antonelli, split the Racing Bulls, completing the top ten, the Italian was four hundredths behind Isack Hadjar.
The only other driver realistically in contention for the championship Max Verstappen, could only manage eighteenth a second and four tenths off the outright pace, and ahead of the two Ferrari’s and teammate Yuki Tsunoda. However, it could be this being a sprint weekend, they were focused on race set-up.
The top ten were covered by just over seven tenths, with the SQ3 cut off would have been a 10.774 set by Antonelli, with eight hundredths covering what would have been SQ2 elimination zone. While SQ1 cut off being 11.070, set by Lance Stroll meaning Verstappen would have missed out by two tenths.
However, we are going off one session and track evolution, set up, and run plans are all unknown. As always at the tight, twisty nature of the Autodromo Jose Carlos Pace was highlighted through a series of traffic-related moments. Antonelli, Isack Hadjar, Russell and Norris all shown getting held up during their hard-tyre runs.
Also off their normal pace were Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, a tenth and a quarter behind Verstappen and ahead of Lewis Hamilton by three hundredths. Verstappen aborted his soft run after doing the fastest first sector but lost half a second in the middle sector, while Ferrari focused on the hard tyres.
Verstappen twice ran off track at the same corner with the RB21’s handling seemingly not yet to his liking. He was also noted for an indecent when rejoining ahead of Russell following one of his spins at the second Descida do Lago (Turn Five), where the replay showed he rejoined ahead of George Russell and left the Mercedes no room as it tried to pass him around the outside on the approach to
Things weren’t also good for Hamilton as he spun at Mergulho (Eleven), but avoided contact with the wall. Like Verstappen, the seven-time champion was on used tyres.
Liam Lawson was eleventh the New Zealander missing out on the top ten by half a tenth as he went a hundredth ahead of Alex Albon. Esteban Ocon was half a tenth ahead of his Haas teammate Ollie Bearman, with Stroll a tenth behind.
As mentioned, the two Red Bull’s and Ferrari’s completed the field. Tsunoda not getting in a proper run on softs as he lost control on the exit of Descida do Lago, where he went over the kerb but slowed his RB21 down enough to get away with a light contact with the barrier.