Verstappen heads Leclerc and Hamilton in sole practice session at COTA

Max Verstappen was the quickest driver in the sole practice session for the United States Grand Prix ahead of Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton.

The world champion’s best time of a 1’35.912 was a tenth of a second faster than Leclerc’s Ferrari with Hamilton almost three tenths behind as neither McLaren driver featured in the top ten.

Conditions could not have been better for drivers for the single hour of practice afforded to them for the weekend, with clear blue skies allowing the sun to heat the track to nearly 40 degrees by the time the session began. After missing the last five rounds after breaking his hand in Zandvoort, Daniel Ricciardo returned to the cockpit of the AlphaTauri for his first outing in the AT04 for almost two months.

Teams opted for a mix of medium and hard compound tyres for the early laps as they got to grips with the green and bumpy asphalt around the Austin circuit. Newly re-crowned world champion Verstappen set the early pace with a 1’39.736 on the hard tyres, but soon took more than two seconds out of that time with a 1’37.687.

Lewis Hamilton admitted to a mistake on his first push lap, but it was still enough to put him second behind the Red Bull driver. Verstappen promptly improved to a 1’37.498, before Hamilton closed to within 0.044s of the Red Bull – also on the hard tyres.

Naturally, the track was very busy given the limited time to prepare car set-ups. Traffic was as much a concern as ever, demonstrated when Carlos Sainz Jnr had to avoid Lando Norris at turn six as the pair both appeared to turn into the apex while Sainz attempted to pass the McLaren on a push lap

Aston Martin driver Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll were both frustrated by apparent identical problems with their left-front brakes. Both drivers were pulled into the garage for extensive work on their cars while the rest of the field continued to pile up the miles. Alonso was eventually released back to the track with just under 30 minutes remaining, but Stroll was left stranded in the garage.

Hamilton moved to the top of the times with a 1’37.394 to go a tenth of a second quicker than Verstappen before the majority of the field bailed into the pit lane to change tyres and settings. After the field eventually reemerged, Oscar Piastri almost lost control of his McLaren after running wide and off the track at the exit of turn nine, having to fight to keep his car pointing the right way over the grass.

Piastri’s team mate Norris rejoined the track on the same set of medium tyres he had previously run on and posted a new fastest lap of the session with a 1’37.256, 0.138s ahead of Hamilton’s prior benchmark.

In the final 15 minutes, teams began to fit the soft compound to their cars. Alexander Albon used the fastest rubber to jump straight to the very top of the times with a 1’36.535, before Verstappen reclaimed the quickest time with a 1’35.912, half a second quicker than the Williams.

Leclerc’s effort on the soft tyres put his Ferrari into second place, a tenth-and-a-half behind the world champion, with Hamilton moving up to third, just ahead of Sergio Perez. Those positions held up to the chequered flag at the end of the hour, with Verstappen sitting atop the order ahead of Leclerc, Hamilton and Perez in fourth.

Kevin Magnussen put his updated Haas in fifth ahead of George Russell in the second Mercedes. Albon was seventh ahead of Sainz in eighth, with Nico Hulkenberg and Pierre Gasly completing the top ten. The McLarens of Norris and Piastri ended the session in 15th and 19th, respectively, with Stroll never getting back onto the track after his early braking problems.

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2023 United States Grand Prix first practice result

P.	#	Driver	Team	Model	Time	Gap	Laps
1	1	Max Verstappen	Red Bull-Honda RBPT	RB19	1’35.912		22
2	16	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	SF-23	1’36.068	0.156	24
3	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	W14	1’36.193	0.281	22
4	11	Sergio Perez	Red Bull-Honda RBPT	RB19	1’36.212	0.300	23
5	20	Kevin Magnussen	Haas-Ferrari	VF-23	1’36.472	0.560	21
6	63	George Russell	Mercedes	W14	1’36.474	0.562	24
7	23	Alexander Albon	Williams-Mercedes	FW45	1’36.492	0.580	20
8	55	Carlos Sainz Jnr	Ferrari	SF-23	1’36.533	0.621	23
9	27	Nico Hulkenberg	Haas-Ferrari	VF-23	1’36.702	0.790	21
10	10	Pierre Gasly	Alpine-Renault	A523	1’36.705	0.793	21
11	2	Logan Sargeant	Williams-Mercedes	FW45	1’36.987	1.075	25
12	31	Esteban Ocon	Alpine-Renault	A523	1’37.066	1.154	21
13	22	Yuki Tsunoda	AlphaTauri-Honda RBPT	AT04	1’37.104	1.192	25
14	3	Daniel Ricciardo	AlphaTauri-Honda RBPT	AT04	1’37.152	1.240	24
15	4	Lando Norris	McLaren-Mercedes	MCL60	1’37.256	1.344	21
16	24	Zhou Guanyu	Alfa Romeo-Ferrari	C43	1’37.418	1.506	24
17	77	Valtteri Bottas	Alfa Romeo-Ferrari	C43	1’37.517	1.605	24
18	14	Fernando Alonso	Aston Martin-Mercedes	AMR23	1’37.840	1.928	19
19	81	Oscar Piastri	McLaren-Mercedes	MCL60	1’38.420	2.508	22
20	18	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin-Mercedes	AMR23	1’39.940	4.028	5

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