Here is our full text transcprit from the practice session for the 2023 Formula 1 Brazilian Grand Prix.
A very good afternoon and welcome to a sunny Sao Paulo as F1 makes its annual appearance at Interlagos for the Sao Paulo Grand Prix. It’s been 12 months since Mercedes last won a race and it came right here in Brazil when George Russell took a maiden win as he led a one-two from Lewis Hamilton. Hamilton says he plans to not end 2023 without victory and has been Max Verstappen’s closest challenger on the track at the last two events.
Red Bull will be the team to beat though, with attention on Sergio Perez and whether he can bounce back from his Mexico City heartbreak, while Ferrari will attempt to beat Mercedes and McLaren and reduce the gap to Mercedes in the standings. It’s the final Sprint weekend of the year, so stay with us for all of the action – starting with the one and only practice session at 2.30pm.
In the last hour we have had confirmation that Formula 1 will continue to race in Brazil until at least 2030 after a new five-year deal was confirmed for the Sao Paulo Grand Prix. Brazil has featured on the F1 calendar since 1973, with Interlagos staging every event since 1990.
Crucial session under way! With just 60 minutes for the teams and drivers to work out their setups for the rest of the weekend, every minute counts here. The light at the end of the pit lane is green, and unsurprisingly, a flurry of cars head straight out on track.
57 mins to go: The world champion is out on track early and sets the ball rolling on the timesheet with a lap of 1:13.950. Just the 1.1s faster than anyone else on their opening efforts so far…although we haven’t seen the whole field on track yet. Laps on the board from the majority of the field now, with Max Verstappen improving on his second push lap to get down to a 1:13.138. Team-mate Sergio Perez is second, nearly 0.4s back on his team-mate, with Charles Leclerc, Lando Norris and Lewis Hamilton next up but over one second adrift of Max. Just the Williams pair without a time at the moment.
51 mins to go: Lots of little issues here to start the session, and the latest is on the McLaren of Oscar Piastri. The Australian says that his right mirror is broken. That at least should be a very simple fix.
48 mins to go: Lewis Hamilton now takes over third on the timesheet, a rather more encouraging 0.3s adrift of the lead Red Bull with his fastest lap so far on the hard tyres. George Russell slots into fourth with his latest lap, 0.3s back on Hamilton. Sergio Perez remains second although has moved to within 0.025s of Max up front. McLaren’s Lando Norris completes the current top five, with Alonso down to sixth.
46 mins to go: We’ve just seen a couple of replays of Logan Sargeant running wide and beyond the white lines that mark the limits of the circuit. Could that be a sign of things to come as drivers begin to push harder later on in qualifying.
39 mins to go: Fernando Alonso’s progress has been halted by a puncture. Thankfully for Aston Martin, he’s able to bring the car back to the pits.
31 mins to go: The first drivers are starting to move down to the quicker medium tyres, and the lap times are improving as a result. First AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda and then Mercedes’ George Russell take over the leadership of the timesheet, with the latter clocking a 1:11.865. That’s nearly a second quicker than Max went on hards, so in the ballpark for what you’d expect from the tyre compound difference, with track evolution added in too. Fernando Alonso now second quickest, still on the hards, after returning from his puncture.
24 mins to go: Well that was completely unnecessary! Lando Norris looks to be making his way past Nico Hulkenberg at Turn 12, but then the Haas driver turns in and their cars come together. Thankfully, it looks as though no damage has been done, but the incident is under investigation by the stewards.
21 mins to go: That contact clearly hasn’t impacted Nico Hulkenberg, with the German having just gone second to George Russell. That means we have a Mercedes followed by the two Haas cars at the top of the timesheet. We’ve still yet to see the majority of the field have a go on anything other than the hard tyres.
Sky Sports F1’s Ted Kravitz: “I’m not going to be surprised by Ferrari being on the front row again. I think they are in the game for pole position this evening.” 15 mins to go: As you can see, Ferrari are out of the current top 10 at the moment, in 13th and 14th, with the Scuderia clearly running around with plenty of fuel at the moment. They are nearly two seconds off the pace but have completed lots of laps – 45 across the two cars.
15 mins to go: Logan Sargeant is having some adventures in this practice session. He’s just gone off at Turn 1, and followed up with a very confused message over team radio.
12 mins to go: In the other Williams, no such problems for Alex Albon who now makes his move up the order on the quickest tyres. However, his 1:12.044 time is not quite enough to dislodge Hulkenberg’s Haas from second place. Lance Stroll takes his Aston Martin to fourth, meanwhile, on the mediums.
Ferrari finally show more pace…to go fastest! 4 mins to go: Well that’s a bit more like it from the polesitters at the past two grands prix. The red cars take on the red tyres and Carlos Sainz uncorks a 1:11.732 to vault to the top of the timesheet in these closing minutes. Still only a tenth quicker than George Russell on the mediums from earlier, mind you.
Chequered flag: Well, that was a very intriguing, cloak-and-dagger kind of practice session. Carlos Sainz finishes ahead of Ferrari team-mate at the head of the timesheet after those late soft-tyre runs. But it’s difficult to draw too many conclusions given none of Mercedes, McLaren and Red Bull ran on that quickest-compound for a full lap (although Piastri’s McLaren did run quickly on softs before aborting).
Mercedes did run mediums and George Russell’s third-quickest time, little over a tenth back on Sainz, is probably the most significant of that hour.
It all bodes very nicely for a difficult-to-call qualifying at 6pm tonight!
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