On a warm day in Austin, Texas, Formula 1 cars were welcomed back on the bumpy American soil of The Circuit of The Americas for the first time since 2019.
Sergio Perez finished Friday on the top of the timings for Red Bull with a time of 1:34.946s on the soft tyres. Lando Norris found himself two tenths behind for McLaren, who enjoyed their opening day in the States as Daniel Ricciardo lined up in 5th – less then three tenths down on his teammate.
Unlike Perez, Verstappen did not enjoy his day. Trailing both Mercedes in FP1 by nine tenths, the Dutchman failed to set a representative time on the soft compound of tyres, finishing down in eighth. Verstappen did not hide his frustrations towards his championship rival, Lewis Hamilton. After being passed by the Red Bull, Hamilton attempted to make his way back through on the final corner which disrupted Verstappen’s preparation and pushed him wide. The two proceeded to make a practice session entertaining by racing down the main straight and into turn one, prompting Verstappen to show the usual expression for a frustrated driver. A confusing yet funny encounter.
On a positive for Max, the pace on the long runs seemed to set his name back towards the top but the aggressive bumps seemed to be the kryptonite for the Red Bull car.
Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas certainly had the upper hand throughout the day but had to settle for third and fourth at the end, but their rear suspension trick for straight line speed has certainly caught the eye of many. However, due to their alleged ongoing ‘reliability concerns’, Bottas will receive his third grid penalty in four races as he takes a sixth ICE unit.
Aston Martin were tipped to go well this weekend, and Lance Stroll certainly backed that judgement by ending up in sixth position at the flag, six tenths away from the leading spot. Although the other car was down in 15th, Sebastian Vettel opted against running the difficult soft tyres in the hotter, afternoon session. Yet, he still trailed his teammate by 1.2s.
Ferrari managed to squeeze Verstappen into a famous sandwich by placing their cars in seventh and ninth, with Charles Leclerc leading the way. Whilst Carlos Sainz’ day seemed relatively calm, Leclerc suffered a high speed spin in the fast and twisty opening sector in the morning but managed to avoid the wall.
Despite finishing in his day by missing the pit lane entry after the session had finished, Antonio Giovinazzi completed the top ten in the afternoon, after both Alfa Romeo cars found themselves inside the sacred positions during the morning session. But, the afternoon was not as successful for Kimi Raikkonen as he could only put his name in 14th and half a second from his teammate.
Alpine’s day was not a memorable one. Esteban Ocon missed out on a top ten spot by a tenth, but Fernando Alonso had a day he would like to forget. On his opening lap of the day, the Spaniard was forced to park his car on the side of the road as fluids swiftly departed the vehicle. Then, he would find himself heading backwards and towards the barriers at the penultimate corner after losing control of his Alpine mid-corner. He could only find 13th.
A usual top ten runner of Pierre Gasly could not find his 2021 form as he languished down in 12th, over a second away from the top. Yuki Tsunoda seemed to struggle more then his teammate with his machine, and that struggle contributed to his 16th place.
The former usual final four runners seemed to reunite at the back, with Mick Schumacher comfortably leading that battle by lapping in 17th, just 0.048s away from Tsunoda – whilst gapping his teammate, Nikita Mazepin, by a full second. Williams ended up being the butter in a Haas sandwich with Nicholas Latifi edging out George Russell by over two tenths of a second.
The Motorsport Formula 