Norris two-tenths faster than Russell, Berman in Interlago FP1

In these particularly crucial free tests, given that this three-day Brazilian GP – the 21st round of this year’s Formula 1 – includes a Sprint race, Lando Norris gave a first indication of how well suited the McLaren MCL38 is to the São Paulo circuit, writing the first time with two tenths difference at the top.

The two Ferraris of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz were nearly a second adrift, as were Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton and Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen.

However, these tests – as the only ones of the three days – were not aimed so much at the absolute speed of the cars, but at the collection of data on the set-up of the cars and – in particular – on the behavior of the tires on the new asphalt that has been laid in Interlago.

Thus, for the first half hour the majority of drivers devoted themselves to the sets of laps with the medium tire. Oscar Piastri, Verstappen, Russell and Sergio Perez crossed the top with it.

In the end, Verstappen was faster on the yellow rim tires, ahead of Hamilton. With about 20 minutes to go, though, Russell became the first to take to the track on the soft rubber, and naturally lowered the first time to 1:10.791.

The rest of the drivers tried their luck with the soft rubber in the final quarter. Russell remained on top as Franco Colapinto, Alex Albon, Liam Lawson and then Piastri and Oliver Berman moved from second. The latter, in fact, was only 14 millimeters behind his compatriot from Mercedes.

Until, in the end, Norris saved his own fastest lap on the soft (although he didn’t set a personal fastest time in the third section of Interlago), and came out on top by nearly two-tenths of a second over his two compatriots who they followed him in this British 1-2-3.

Verstappen tried to respond in the final minutes, but while he was very fast in the first section of the track in the second he lost a lot of time and aborted his lap. This left him in 15th place, with the time he had done on the medium tyre.

Perez, albeit on the soft tyre, settled for 19th as he mainly tried to tune his Red Bull RB20 to the new floor he is using in Brazil. As for Hamilton, he never took to the track on the soft rubber and was fatally left behind in the standings, 16th behind Verstappen.