Sergio Perez was fastest in the first practice session for the Sao Paulo Grand Prix. The Red Bull driver set an 11.853 on the soft tyre to go four-thousandths of a second faster than the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc halfway through the session ahead of qualifying later on Friday.
Leclerc managed to split the Red Bull’s also going four thousandths ahead of Max Verstappen which sets up a close fight for pole in qualifying. Red Bull will be the favourites going into qualifying having dominated the second half of the season, however, Ferrari have had the better car in qualifying all season. But Interlagos often provides some of the closest times of the season.
Verstappen was complaining about a lack of front grip throughout the session, while Hamilton said his car had a “floaty” feeling and was lacking rear grip. Red Bull had appeared to be in a league of their own for much of the session, but Ferrari produced a late show of speed to set the stage for Qualifying.
Carlos Sainz put his Ferrari fourth fastest but was a sizable tenth and three quarters behind Verstappen, but was a thousandth faster than Lewis Hamilton. The Mercedes driver struggled on the softs, his first run being abandoned after going wide at Laranjinha then locking up and sliding at Turn Eight.
But Hamilton was a quarter of a second faster than has teammate George Russell, as the session neared it conclusion. Sebastian Vettel put his Aston Martin seventh, as the car showed a bit of pace going into qualifying ahead of the final sprint of 2022.
Mercedes appeared to be slightly off the pace of Red Bull and Ferrari, but with clouds gathering over the circuit and rain forecast to arrive during Qualifying, Hamilton may retain hopes of claiming a first pole of the season, either this afternoon or in tomorrow’s sprint.
There were various surprises in the midfield, Alfa Romeo continued to look competitive at high altitude Valtteri Bottas going ninth ahead of the Alpha Tauri of Pierre Gasly. Alpine didn’t appear to show the pace they have managed in recent races, both cars outside the top ten, with Fernando Alonso nearly a tenth off.
Alex Albon put his Williams twelfth as he spilt the Alpine’s after going seven hundredths faster than Esteban Ocon. Albon this season has looked more competitive at lower speed technical circuits like Interlagos. Lance Stroll put his Aston Martin fourteenth going ahead of Lando Norris by nearly two-tenths.
The Englishman has been feeling unwell and sat out Thursday’s media day, but was left annoyed as his former teammate bounced of the kerb in front of him on the exit of Curva do Sol wrecking his lap. Norris’s teammate Daniel Ricciardo rounded out the field in twentieth.
Kevin Magnussen put his Haas sixteenth, the Dane was just over two hundredths ahead of Guanyu Zhou. Yuki Tsunoda was nineteenth going two hundredths ahead of Ricciardo.
