There was no challenging freshly crowned F1 world champion Max Verstappen in Friday’s single practice in Austin, the Red Bull charger ending the session 0.156s clear of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc.
Lewis Hamilton clocked in an encouraging third onboard Mercedes’ updated W14, 0.281s adrift from Verstappen while Sergio Perez was fourth.
Haas certainly took encouragement from Kevin Magnussen’s fourth fastest lap at the wheel of the team’s heavily modified VF-23, the Dane preceding in the pecking order the Mercedes of George Russell which rounded off the top six.
Friday’s opening session took on extra significance given the sprint weekend’s compressed schedule in Austin, meaning that set-ups needed to be determined and frozen for the remainder of the weekend in just 60 minutes.
Risk of rain was 0% and air temperature was approaching 32 degrees Celsius at the start of the session.
Unsurprisingly, the track was a hive of activity from the outset, with Russell heading the two Haas chargers out of the pitlane, while Daniel Ricciardo enjoyed began his first flying lap since his second return to F1.
Verstappen – running on the hards – set the first benchmark of the afternoon, the Dutchman heading Nico Hulkenberg by just a tenth.
Sainz’s opening effort almost ended in disaster when the Scuderia driver stumbled upon a slow moving Lando Norris in the track’s fast sweepers.
Meanwhile, Verstappen improved slightly on his own personal best just before Hamilton – also on the hard rubber – stole the Red Bull driver’s thunder with a 1m37.394s that outpaced the Dutchman by 0.104s, with Norris lining up third.
It was a complicated start for Aston Martin, with Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll putting only a handful of laps on the board in the first half of the session, the pair spending most of their time in Team Silverstone’s garage.
Oscar Piastri suffered a big heart-in-mouth moment at COTA’s Turn 9 when ran wide but miraculously saved himself from the worst as his car fishtailed out of harm’s way, surviving the moment to fight another lap.
With 20 minutes to go, there was a change on the leaderboard as Norris usurped Hamilton’s best, the McLaren driver – shod with the medium tyre – edging the Mercedes driver by 0.138s.
Sargeant rolled out onto the pitlane on a set of softs, the first driver to do so, and the young American immediately jumped to fourth. Alex Albon followed suit and went fastest, beating Norris’ previous benchmark by 0.721s, proving the benefit of the Pirelli red-walled compound.
But Williams’ lead was short-lived, with Verstappen crushing Albon’s flyer by 0.623s as qualifying simulations were in order in the final 10 minutes of the session.
Just 120 seconds before the checkered flag was deployed, Leclerc got the gap down to 0.156s to slot in to second. But there was no challenging Verstappen who ended the session at the top of the time sheet.
Behind the top-two, Hamilton settled into third, with Perez just behind and Magnussen rounding off the top five, which was certainly an encouraging performance for Haas’ updated VF-23.
Thereafter followed the second Mercedes of Russell, Albon, Sainz, Hulkenberg and Gasly’s who closed out the top ten for Alpine.
Sargeant led the second half of the field, while both AlphaTauri’s remaoned close together with Tsunoda just edging Ricciardo for P13.
McLaren was nowhere to be seen among the top ten, with Norris and Piastri lingering in 15th and 19th, although it was worth noting that neither driver sampled the soft rubber in the session.
The same goes for Aston Martin whose drivers ran exclusively on the hard tyre.
In summary, the battle seems to be wide open at the front behind Verstappen, and in the midfield, with Ferrari and Mercedes both displaying proper pace.
Can McLaren and Aston put themselves in the mix? Check back in two hours to find out.
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