Lando Norris set ground in the United States GP rehearsals

The Englishman was the fastest in the only practice session of the 19th round of F1. Nico Hülkenberg surprised with a great lap and was second. Oscar Piastri, third.

Lando Norris arrived at the United States GP, the 19th round of F1, after the reprimand he received after colliding with Oscar Piastri in Singapore. Although during the race the team understood that there was no reason for the World Championship leader’s complaint, a day later, in a meeting with priests Zak Brown and Andrea Stella, the blame fell on the Englishman. It was of little use to the Australian, because no one will give him back the three lost points in the context of the strange and controversial Papaya rules, but the Briton arrived in Austin with the need to make ground on the track and to try to put the Singaporean mess behind him. And he did it by dominating the only free practice on the Texas track, in the middle of the sprint race weekend (the fourth of the year of the six scheduled).

Of the 60 minutes of the session, interrupted by a brief period due to the red card caused by Lance Stroll (a deflector came off his Aston Martin), the vast majority was used by everyone to spin on hard tyres. It was a fairly tedious round, which got hot when the qualifying simulation began, in the last ten minutes. There the McLarens appeared, who were not in the first places during the hard stint. And Norris was the fastest, clocking 1m33s294.

When everything seemed to indicate that the training session would close with the MCL39 1-2, the surprise arose: Nico Hülkenberg. With his Sauber he nailed 1m33s549 to finish second and leave Oscar Piastri third (1m33s573). Fernando Alonso came fourth with his Aston Martin, with 1m33s639.

Max Verstappen, who has not dropped from second place in the last four rounds, with two victories included, was fifth, 354 thousandths behind Norris. Everything tight and close in the first places. Alex Albon, George Russell, Lewis Hamilton, Isack Hadjar and Oliver Bearman completed the top ten. The next outing on the track will be for the sprint classification.