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Lando Norris set the pace for McLaren in the only practice session for the 2024 Brazilian Grand Prix, while Formula 1 title rival Max Verstappen was only 15th - and Haas stand-in Ollie Bearman was a sensational third.
Norris set the fastest lap right at the end of the 60-minute session, a 1m10.610s lap that edged out George Russell’s Mercedes by 0.181 seconds.
Bearman, subbing at least until the end of Saturday’s sprint race for the unwell Kevin Magnussen, was one of only five drivers to lap below 1m11s - and was more than three tenths faster than Haas team-mate Nico Hulkenberg, who was eighth.
Alex Albon did the whole session on the medium (C4) tyre and was fifth fastest for Williams, ahead of Ferrari duo Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz, who aren’t expecting to go as well around this track as they have done at recent races.
Fernando Alonso’s Aston Martin and Pierre Gasly’s Alpine completed the top 10.
Verstappen was on a lap within a tenth of Russell’s after the first two sectors on the soft compound, but Max aborted to the pits before completing it so the true pace of the Red Bull remains obscured at this stage. Red Bull team boss Christian Horner reckons he'd have been around third or fourth fastest had he finished that lap.
Sergio Perez did complete a lap on the soft (C5) tyre, but he found barely more than two tenths compared to his medium (C4) best so ended up only 19th fastest - even though his initial pace on the medium tyre was comparatively decent.
OVERALL ORDER
1. Norris 1m10.610s
2. Russell 1m10.791s
3. Bearman 1m10.805s
4. Piastri 1m10.950s
5. Albon 1m10.955s (M)
6. Leclerc 1m11.038s
7. Sainz 1m11.100s
8. Hulkenberg 1m11.124s
9. Alonso 1m11.215s
10. Gasly 1m11.216s
11. Lawson 1m11.301s
12.Tsunoda 1m11.483s (M)
13. Colapinto 1m11.619s
14. Bottas 1m11.651s
15. Verstappen 1m11.712s (M)
16. Hamilton 1m11.754s (M)
17. Stroll 1m11.783s
18. Ocon 1m11.827s
19. Perez 1m11.845s
20. Zhou 1m12.883s
The majority of the session was devoted to medium compound running, for all teams save for RB - which inverted by beginning on the soft.
McLaren set the pace initially, with Piastri into the low 1m13s and Norris straight into the 1m12s before both cars disappeared into the garage for a long spell, apparently having the suspension adjusted for this newly resurfaced but somehow bumpier Interlagos F1 track.
Russell moved the benchmark into the low 1m12s for Mercedes, before Perez briefly topped the session on a 1m12.099s lap in his changed Red Bull chassis, still running an older floor specification than Verstappen's.
Russell was the first driver to break into the 1m11s, but it was Verstappen who topped this segment with a 1m11.712s.
PRE-QUALIFYING SIM ORDER
1. Verstappen 1m11.712s
2. Russell 1m11.806s
3. Hamilton 1m11.754s
4. Alonso 1m11.984s
5. Leclerc 1m12.037s
6. Gasly 1m12.050s
7. Perez 1m12.099s
8. Sainz 1m12.101s
9. Stroll 1m12.278s
10. Lawson 1m12.304s (S)
11. Albon 1m12.373s
12. Piastri 1m12.388s
13. Hulkenberg 1m12.483s
14. Ocon 1m12.509s
15. Colapinto 1m12.614s
16. Norris 1m12.641s
17. Bearman 1m12.891s
18. Tsunoda 1m13.007s (S)
19. Bottas 1m13.282s
20. Zhou 1m13.749s
Lewis Hamilton, Alonso, Leclerc and Gasly all took the benefit of setting their best medium-tyre laps later in the session, after a spell in the pits, and so took the benefit of relative track improvement compared to the likes of Verstappen, Russell and Perez in this segment.
Verstappen’s and Russell’s laps came in the space of those initial runs, so were relatively more impressive than most in that top 10 order.
