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F1 Brazilian GP: Sainz leads Ferrari 1-2 in sole practice

All 20 drivers wasted no time getting out as the condensed sprint race format only leaves teams a single hour practice to nail down their set-ups for the entire weekend.

Because of the lack of practice time, duties were split between race runs and just a handful of qualifying sims, with all teams kicking off proceedings on a dry Interlagos circuit on Pirelli's hard tyre compound.

Red Bull's world champion Max Verstappen immediately set a lap of 1m13.950s on hard tyres to go top ahead of team-mate Sergio Perez, who is looking to rebound from a heartbreaking Lap 1 crash in his Mexico home race.

Both drivers soon improved on the same compound with Verstappen's 1m13.138s putting him four tenths ahead of the Mexican, following by Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton, Haas man Nico Hulkenberg and the second Mercedes of George Russell at the 15-minute mark, who later leapfrogged his team-mate into third.

After 23 minutes Yuki Tsunoda lit up the timing screens in the AlphaTauri, the Japanese driver stopping the clocks at 1m28.802s as the first of the medium runners.

But just before the halfway mark Tsunoda was bested by Verstappen and then Russell, who led with a 1m11.865s on the same medium compound, before Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso split Russell and Verstappen in second while still using hards.

Charles Leclerc, Ferrari SF-23, Carlos Sainz, Ferrari SF-23 (Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images)

Kevin Magnussen, who was a late arrival after his Wednesday flight got cancelled, briefly appeared in the top three as the first of the few soft-tyre runners. His team-mate Hulkenberg came within 0.063s of temporarily snatching away first place from Russell, the Haas duo preceding a flurry of soft tyre runs from Ferrari and Williams in the final third.

Russell was finally dislodged by Ferrari's Carlos Sainz with a 1m11.732s on softs, with Leclerc making it a Ferrari 1-2.

Russell stayed third, ahead of Hulkenberg, Williams man Alex Albon and Aston Martin's Lance Stroll.

Pierre Gasly was seventh for Alpine, following by Zhou Guanyu in the Alfa Romeo. Logan Sargeant and Magnussen rounded out the top 10.

Alonso ended up in 11th ahead of Hamilton and Tsunoda, while Daniel Ricciardo shadowing his AlphaTauri team-mate in 14th.

Esteban Ocon followed in 15th, with world champion Verstappen a low-key 16th - one second down on the Ferraris - after only running on hard tyres.

Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing RB19 (Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images)

Valtteri Bottas split the two Red Bulls as Perez followed in 18th.

McLaren's Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri propped up the timesheets after not setting times on the softest compounds, electing to save them for later.

The session ran without noteworthy incidents, although Norris and Hulkenberg escaped damage when they make glancing contact at the final corner, which netted the German a trip to the stewards.

Hulkenberg later appeared to lose power coming out of Turn 4, trundling back to the pits.

F1 Brazilian GP - FP1 results

 
 
       
Driver Info
 
 
 
   
Cla Driver # Chassis Engine Laps Time Interval km/h
1 Spain C. Sainz Ferrari 55 Ferrari Ferrari 30

1'11.732

  216.254
2 Monaco C. Leclerc Ferrari 16 Ferrari Ferrari 32

+0.108

1'11.840

0.108 215.929
3 United Kingdom G. Russell Mercedes 63 Mercedes Mercedes 31

+0.133

1'11.865

0.025 215.854
4 Germany N. Hulkenberg Haas F1 Team 27 Haas Ferrari 19

+0.196

1'11.928

0.063 215.665
5 Thailand A. Albon Williams 23 Williams Mercedes 28

+0.312

1'12.044

0.116 215.318
6 Canada L. Stroll Aston Martin Racing 18 Aston Martin Mercedes 26

+0.404

1'12.136

0.092 215.043
7 France P. Gasly Alpine 10 Alpine Renault 31

+0.452

1'12.184

0.048 214.900
8 China Z. Guanyu Alfa Romeo 24 Alfa Romeo Ferrari 27

+0.749

1'12.481

0.297 214.020
9 United States L. Sargeant Williams 2 Williams Mercedes 30

+0.847

1'12.579

0.098 213.731
10 Denmark K. Magnussen Haas F1 Team 20 Haas Ferrari 24

+0.860

1'12.592

0.013 213.692
11 Spain F. Alonso Aston Martin Racing 14 Aston Martin Mercedes 28

+0.883

1'12.615

0.023 213.625
12 United Kingdom L. Hamilton Mercedes 44 Mercedes Mercedes 30

+0.906

1'12.638

0.023 213.557
13 Japan Y. Tsunoda AlphaTauri 22 AlphaTauri Red Bull 29

+0.982

1'12.714

0.076 213.334
14 Australia D. Ricciardo AlphaTauri 3 AlphaTauri Red Bull 27

+1.046

1'12.778

0.064 213.146
15 France E. Ocon Alpine 31 Alpine Renault 30

+1.047

1'12.779

0.001 213.143
16 Netherlands M. Verstappen Red Bull Racing 1 Red Bull Red Bull 30

+1.061

1'12.793

0.014 213.102
17 Finland V. Bottas Alfa Romeo 77 Alfa Romeo Ferrari 31

+1.280

1'13.012

0.219 212.463
18 Mexico S. Perez Red Bull Racing 11 Red Bull Red Bull 31

+1.324

1'13.056

0.044 212.335
19 United Kingdom L. Norris McLaren 4 McLaren Mercedes 25

+1.897

1'13.629

0.573 210.683
20 Australia O. Piastri McLaren 81 McLaren Mercedes 28

+2.106

1'13.838

0.209 210.086
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