US GP: Ferrari top FP1 from Max Verstappen amid Red Bull bib drama

No upgrades, no problem for Ferrari as they started the US Grand Prix race weekend at COTA with a one-two.

Max Verstappen went first on the soft tyres as he completed the top three, as F1 got back to on-track business amid the Red Bull bib talk dominating proceedings off it.

Ferrari top sole US GP practice session

The ‘autumn break’ was over as the drivers returned to action at COTA, FP1 marking the one and only practice session of the United States Grand Prix weekend, with the F1 Sprint format returning for this round.

And it was a resurfaced COTA circuit which the drivers would need to get to grips with, that field including Liam Lawson, who has replaced Daniel Ricciardo at VCARB for the remainder of the season as he chases an F1 2025 seat within the Red Bull fold.

Off-track drama had been plentiful in the lead-up to FP1 regarding the Red Bull RB20 bib , and when Verstappen got the “you know what the state of play is this weekend” message over the radio, it posed the question of whether that was a nod to this rival attention, or, was it about Williams’ Franco Colapinto who had just got all out of shape in front of Verstappen in the opening minutes?

Alpine’s upgraded A524 was sporting its McLaren-lookalike, sorry, Indiana Jones livery for Austin, but that could not prevent Pierre Gasly from getting into an early spin at Turn 1, while Hamilton did the same through the esses, put off by encountering a Haas. George Russell reported over the radio that he had just had a similar issue through that section.

Russell soon had another moment as the W15 – sporting a six-part upgrade – slid round on him at Turn 1.

A team not experiencing issues at this early stage of the race weekend were Ferrari, who took the alternate route to title rivals Red Bull and McLaren by not upgrading their SF-24. 20 minutes into the session and Charles Leclerc was P1, 0.265s up on team-mate Carlos Sainz in a Ferrari one-two.

The Pirelli hard tyre had been the compound of choice for much of that first-half of FP1.

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From there Verstappen became the first of the front-runners to take the plunge on the soft rubber, clocking a 1:33.8 as the new benchmark for rivals to chase, Verstappen reporting back that the tyres were a little too on the cold side for his liking at the start of that lap. Verstappen did not find any extra time on his second attempt with that set.

Sergio Perez fell nearly nine-tenths short of his team-mate, complaining of bouncing at lower speed.

Sauber’s Zhou Guanyu looked to set off on his soft tyre run as FP1 moved into its final 20 minutes, but a loss of power had him returning to the pit lane.

Russell was getting his background knowledge together for a push lap by asking how far wide drivers are going at Turn 9, the Brit told that Verstappen was going right up to the limit of the blue line.

As the clock ticked below 10 minutes remaining, the qualifying simulations would now truly begin. Could Verstappen’s 1:33.8 withstand the test?

The answer was no, as Sainz put Ferrari back on top with a 1:33.602. Oscar Piastri triggered the Virtual Safety Car by taking the pit entry with far too much speed, forcing him to bail out.

In a reversal of the early-session leaderboard, Sainz would top the FP1 standings from Leclerc, Verstappen completing the top three.

FP1 times

1 Carlos Sainz Ferrari 1:33.602
2 Charles Leclerc Ferrari +0.021
3 Max Verstappen Red Bull Racing +0.253
4 Lando Norris McLaren +0.266
5 Oscar Piastri McLaren +0.306
6 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes +0.361
7 George Russell Mercedes +0.491
8 Kevin Magnussen Haas F1 Team +0.494
9 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin +0.510
10 Yuki Tsunoda RB +0.711
11 Nico Hulkenberg Haas F1 Team +0.762
12 Pierre Gasly Alpine +0.773
13 Liam Lawson RB +0.841
14 Alexander Albon Williams +1.016
15 Lance Stroll Aston Martin +1.017
16 Sergio Perez Red Bull Racing +1.036
17 Esteban Ocon Alpine +1.204
18 Valtteri Bottas Kick Sauber +1.439
19 Franco Colapinto Williams +1.646
20 Zhou Guanyu Kick Sauber +3.617

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