FP1: Verstappen leads first practice at Brazil

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F1 Grand Prix, GP Brazil, Autódromo José Carlos Pace, Interlagosbr

Running kicked off in the Brazilian Grand Prix weekend with Max Verstappen topping the first free practice session of Friday. The Dutch Red Bull driver narrowly edged Sebastian Vettel and Lewis Hamilton.

Though the early times are usually not a perfect view on the pecking order, having the top three drivers within a tenth of a second bodes well for the rest of the weekend.

The team mate of those three were fourth, fifth and sixth, and could potentially make the battle at the front even closer that it looked in this first session. It was however already confirmed that Daniel Ricciardo would face a 5-place grid penalty on Sunday due to taking on new power unit elements.

In the battle for best of the rest, Haas made the best start of the race weekend as they comfortably saw their drivers take 7th and 8th, ahead of another promising performance from Charles Leclerc, readying himself for his penultimate race with Sauber before setting off to join Ferrari next season.

Esteban Ocon recorded the 10th fastest time, keeping both Renaults out of the top 10.

As always, there were again some Friday drivers, with Lando Norris running Fernando Alonso's car. The youngster repeatedly had trouble to find space on the track, frequently requiring him to back off. At Sauber, Giovinazzi took the wheel of Ericsson's car. Nicholas Latifi replaced Sergio Perez at Racing Point Force India.

Results

Pos.No.DriverCarTimeGapLaps
133Max VerstappenRed Bull Racing Tag Heuer1:09.011-16
25Sebastian VettelFerrari1:09.060+0.049s20
344Lewis HamiltonMercedes1:09.107+0.096s28
43Daniel RicciardoRed Bull Racing Tag Heuer1:09.395+0.384s23
57Kimi RäikkönenFerrari1:09.573+0.562s28
677Valtteri BottasMercedes1:09.679+0.668s23
78Romain GrosjeanHaas Ferrari1:09.922+0.911s28
820Kevin MagnussenHaas Ferrari1:10.236+1.225s15
916Charles LeclercSauber Ferrari1:10.346+1.335s28
1031Esteban OconForce India Mercedes1:10.361+1.350s34
1155Carlos SainzRenault1:10.662+1.651s34
1227Nico HulkenbergRenault1:10.679+1.668s34
1336Antonio GiovinazziSauber Ferrari1:10.685+1.674s29
1418Lance StrollWilliams Mercedes1:10.799+1.788s30
1510Pierre GaslyScuderia Toro Rosso Honda1:10.934+1.923s30
1647Lando NorrisMcLaren Renault1:11.013+2.002s28
1735Sergey SirotkinWilliams Mercedes1:11.037+2.026s30
1828Brendon HartleyScuderia Toro Rosso Honda1:11.176+2.165s32
192Stoffel VandoorneMcLaren Renault1:11.452+2.441s23
2034Nicholas LatifiForce India Mercedes1:11.493+2.482s34