Lando Norris tops FP1 as Colton Herta clinches superlicence
Lando Norris was fastest in Free Practice 1 at Formula 1’s Brazilian Grand Prix, leading Kimi Antonelli, Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton.
Norris outpaced Antonelli by 0.082s on the soft rubber with a time of 1m11.717s, while Verstappen and Hamilton were two and three tenths adrift respectively, with the top-four teams again all close together.
Not all of them were happy, however, with Verstappen complaining over team radio about a long-time problem of the RB22: “Unacceptable, man. Unacceptable, these downshifts. What the ****?”
Later on, he mentioned yet another issue: “There’s something wrong with my steering. It’s getting harder and harder to turn the wheel.”
There were hefty lock-ups galore in Turn 1 for veterans and rookies alike – and there were many of the latter in action. The most prominent of them undoubtedly was Rafael Camara, with Haas’ 2027 driver making an early F1 debut at home this weekend following Esteban Ocon’s fallout with the team.
Formula 2’s championship leader was 18th-fastest in this session, nearly nine tenths slower than team-mate Oliver Bearman.
One rookie who did outpace the sister car was Alpine’s Gabriele Mini, who took seventh place with a 1m12.569s, 0.085s quicker than Franco Colapinto. No other rookie run driver made it into the top 10; McLaren’s Leonardo Fornaroli was 11th (+1.116s vs Norris), Williams’ Luke Browning 17th (+0.080s vs Alex Albon, who had a mechanical problem) and Cadillac’s Colton Herta 20th (+0.904s vs Valtteri Bottas).
Gabriele Mini, Alpine F1
Photo by: Sam Bloxham / LAT Images via Getty Images
Herta’s trouble-free session – other than a mammoth lock-up into Turn 1 – should theoretically mean he will collect the final required point for an FIA superlicence, making him eligible to a 2027 F1 seat should Cadillac elect to promote him next year.
Ferrari’s Dino Beganovic and Audi’s Freddie Slater propped up the classification after encountering technical issue which prevented them from setting soft-tyre times and restricted their mileage. “The car has just switched off,” Slater said, causing a red flag just 12 minutes into the session. The pair completed 11 and seven laps respectively.
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