Everything that happened in first Brazilian GP F1 practice

Sergio Perez narrowly beat Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc to the fastest time in first practice for the Brazilian Grand Prix, as just two tenths of a second blanketed Red Bull, Ferrari and Mercedes.

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Key moments

• Perez on top for Red Bull
• Ferrari back in the mix
• Verstappen unhappy with handling

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FP1 represents the only meaningful practice session of this weekend, given Interlagos plays host to F1’s final sprint race of 2022 and so qualifying replaces the usual FP2 slot on Friday.

As such, the run programmes varied greatly across the teams, creating an unclear picture of relative form.

Red Bull used the hard tyre to begin with, before making an early switch to softs for qualifying simulations. Mercedes used the softs much later in the session, when the track had improved significantly. Ferrari waited until the closing minutes, when the track was at its best, before fitting the softest (C4) tyre for the first time.

That means Perez’s 1m11.853s best lap was set much earlier than his main rivals, so it’s likely the Red Bull is capable of going much faster than the 0.004s gap to Leclerc’s Ferrari in FP1.

World champion Max Verstappen set the pace in the early part of the session, using the hardest tyre, but he complained throughout the hour that his RB18 “just doesn’t turn at all”.

Verstappen ended up third fastest regardless, just 0.008s adrift of his Red Bull team-mate Perez.

Carlos Sainz, who faces a grid penalty for an engine change in his Ferrari, was fourth quickest, less than a tenth slower than Perez, while Lewis Hamilton and George Russell rounded out the top six for Mercedes.

Hamilton struggled early on, with the hard and medium tyre, complaining it “feels like the rear is just floating around – no grip”, but his Mercedes was better on the soft compound and he lapped only 0.001s slower than Sainz.

Mercedes trackside engineer director Andrew Shovlin revealed after FP1 that Hamilton was experimenting with low-wing levels, hence his sporadic pace and balance struggles for most of the session.

Russell looked happier than Hamilton on the harder tyres, but was 0.015s slower than his team-mate on the softest compound.

Sebastian Vettel was best of the rest for Aston Martin, lapping just over three tenths off the outright pace, ahead of Mick Schumacher’s Haas, the Alfa Romeo of Valtteri Bottas and Pierre Gasly’s AlphaTauri.

Schumacher’s pace was impressive on the medium tyre too, though he ran out of sync with most of the field on that tyre.

Bottas actually split the Red Bulls early on, when running the medium tyre, but naturally slipped back as the track improved and more drivers used the softest compound.

Fernando Alonso was 11th in the best of the Alpines, neither of which ran the soft tyre in this session, while Alex Albon’s Williams used a soft tyre to split Alonso from his team-mate Esteban Ocon.

Alpine’s main championship rival McLaren also forwent the softest tyre in FP1, as both cars spent significant time in the pits. Lando Norris was 15th fastest using the medium tyre, 1.1s off the pace, while Daniel Ricciardo was slowest of all.

Practice 1 Results