With the Sprint format returning at the Circuit of The Americas for the United States Grand Prix, it was Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz who went fastest in the sole hour of practice across the three days of running, heading team mate Charles Leclerc and the Red Bull of Max Verstappen ahead of Friday afternoon’s Sprint Qualifying.
With all teams bar Ferrari and Williams running upgrades in Austin – as Formula 1 resumed racing following a three-week break – there was plenty of action from the moment the green light came on at the end of the pit lane, as the drivers tried to get their cars dialled in for Sprint Qualifying and Saturday’s Sprint.
Mercedes – running what the team’s Trackside Engineering Director Andrew Shovlin called their “most substantial update of the year” – caught the eye initially, but for all the wrong reasons, as first Lewis Hamilton and then George Russell suffered dramatic spins out on the re-surfaced Circuit of The Americas track.
While the hard tyre was favoured by the majority of teams for the main part of the running, with 10 minutes to go, many of the squads made their move to softs to test out their one-lap pace – with Sainz stopping the clocks with a 1m 33.602s, to head Leclerc by just 0.021s in the un-upgraded Ferraris.
Max Verstappen took P3 in his upgraded Red Bull RB20, albeit two and a half tenths adrift of the Ferraris, as his chief title rival Lando Norris took fourth after waiting until the very final moments of the session to post his lap.