F1 Drivers’ title contender Lando Norris took top spot in the sole practice session for this weekend’s 2024 FIA Formula 1 São Paulo Grand Prix, beating George Russell by just under two tenths of a second. Ollie Bearman, a late replacement for the unwell Kevin Magnussen took third place. 

At the start of the single hour of practice running it was championship leader Max Verstappen who set the early pace, with the Dutchman, who is set for an PU-related five place grid drop this weekend, posting a lap of 1:11.712 to head Russell. 

After a brief pause in the action, a second sequence of runs on Medium compound tyres unfolded and that saw Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton jump up the order to take P2. 

Russell was preparing to get the Soft tyres quali sims underway, however, and when the Briton made his early switch, just as the final third got underway, he jumped to top spot with a time of 1:10.791.

That lap stood as the quickest of the session well into the final 10 minutes, but then the bulk of the field began to pound out laps on the red-banded tyres. Williams’ Franco Colapinto vaulted to second but the Argentinian driver was still more than eight tenths off Russell. Bearman, who will this weekend make his third 2024 race appearance and his second at the wheel of Magnussen’s Haas then delivered a time of 1:10.805 to sit just 0.014s off Russell. Williams’ Alex Albon then put in a lap 0.164 off Russell but he was then shuffled back by McLaren’s Oscar Piastri who slotted into third place 1:10.950, just 0.005s ahead of Albon. 

It took until the final minute of the session for Russell’s time to be beaten and it was Norris who found the edge. The Briton, who lies 47 points adrift of title leader Verstappen, posted a lap of 1:10.610s to claim top spot. 

With Piastri and Albon fourth and fifth behind Bearman, sixth place went to Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, who used a second run on used Softs to make an improvement to 1:11.038, six hundredths of a second ahead of seventh-laced team-mate Carlos Sainz. Nico Hülkenberg finished eighth in the other Haas ahead of Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso and Alpine’s Pierre Gasly.

Verstappen, meanwhile, had a low key session. The Dutchman aborted his Soft tyre run after a poor second sector and finished 15th on his Medium tyre time. His Red Bull team-mate Sergio Pérez, running an older chassis this weekend, fared even worse, ending the 60 minutes in 19th place just ahead of Kick Sauber’s Zhou Guanyu. 

2024 FIA Formula 1 São Paulo Grand Prix – Free Practice 1
1 Lando Norris McLaren/Mercedes 1:10.610 29 219.691
2 George Russell Mercedes 1:10.791 0.181 24 219.129
3 Oliver Bearman Haas/Ferrari 1:10.805 0.195 30 219.086
4 Oscar Piastri McLaren/Mercedes 1:10.950 0.340 30 218.638
5 Alexander Albon Williams/Mercedes 1:10.955 0.345 28 218.623
6 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:11.038 0.428 31 218.367
7 Carlos Sainz Ferrari 1:11.100 0.490 30 218.177
8 Nico Hülkenberg Haas/Ferrari 1:11.124 0.514 26 218.103
9 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin/Mercedes 1:11.215 0.605 26 217.824
10 Pierre Gasly Alpine/Renault 1:11.216 0.606 27 217.821
11 Liam Lawson RB/Honda RBPT 1:11.301 0.691 26 217.562
12 Yuki Tsunoda RB/Honda RBPT 1:11.483 0.873 25 217.008
13 Franco Colapinto Williams/Mercedes 1:11.619 1.009 31 216.596
14 Valtteri Bottas Sauber/Ferrari 1:11.651 1.041 29 216.499
15 Max Verstappen Red Bull/Honda RBPT 1:11.712 1.102 30 216.315
16 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:11.754 1.144 30 216.188
17 Lance Stroll Aston Martin/Mercedes 1:11.783 1.173 26 216.101
18 Esteban Ocon Alpine/Renault 1:11.827 1.217 26 215.968
19 Sergio Pérez Red Bull/Honda RBPT 1:11.845 1.235 28 215.914
20 Zhou Guanyu Sauber/Ferrari 1:12.883 2.273 27 212.839