The Formula 1 World Championship lands in the United States for the nineteenth round of the 2025 season, and the Sprint format makes its return this weekend. With only one free practice session before qualifying, teams had just one hour to find the ideal setup and complete their race and qualifying simulations. Here’s the full summary of FP1 at the United States Grand Prix.
First half hour
With just an hour available to get used to the demanding American circuit, all the drivers immediately took to the track. Everyone started on the hardest compound to complete their first timed laps, though the initial times were not particularly representative.
After the first fifteen minutes, Max Verstappen went to the top of the leaderboard, followed by George Russell and Yuki Tsunoda. A red flag was briefly shown due to small pieces of debris on the track, interrupting a session that had seen Lewis Hamilton improve and move into first place.
When the session resumed, the first half hour concluded with Hamilton still in the lead, ahead of Verstappen, Russell, Tsunoda, and Norris.
Second half hour
In the second and final part of the session, the teams returned to the track after making setup adjustments, performing short race pace simulations that didn’t reveal much in terms of performance. In the closing ten minutes, the drivers switched to the soft tyres to simulate qualifying runs and pushed harder for a fast lap.
Lando Norris managed to take the top spot with a 1:33.294, followed by Fernando Alonso and Max Verstappen. Meanwhile, Charles Leclerc remained stuck in the garage due to a suspected gearbox problem, preventing him from completing his qualifying simulation and forcing him to end his session early.
The first and only practice session ended with Norris in first place, ahead of Nico Hülkenberg, Oscar Piastri, Fernando Alonso, and Max Verstappen.
Mixed results for Ferrari and McLaren
As expected, McLaren showed strong pace, with the American circuit suiting its well-balanced technical package perfectly. Red Bull also appeared competitive, showing no major weaknesses on the fast and twisty Austin layout.
Ferrari, on the other hand, struggled to shine. The gearbox issue on Charles Leclerc’s SF-25 could have serious consequences for his qualifying session later today. Lewis Hamilton, for his part, chose not to complete a push lap on soft tyres, focusing instead on running with the medium compound.
With such limited time and different run plans between teams, it’s difficult to draw firm conclusions from the data collected. The true performance picture will only become clear during the first qualifying session, scheduled for 11:30 PM Central European Time.
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