Home F1 Brazil GP: Perez fastest in FP1 as Top 3 separated by 0.008s

Brazil GP: Perez fastest in FP1 as Top 3 separated by 0.008s

11/11/2022

Sergio Perez led the way in FP1 of F1 Brazil GP from Charles Leclerc and Max Verstappen with Top 3 separated by 0.008s.

The all-important FP1 session in F1 Brazil GP at Interlagos due to it being a sprint weekend saw Red Bull lead the way where Sergio Perez (1m11.853s) headed from Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc (1m11.857s), who set a late lap to be second – only 0.004s away.

In fact, Max Verstappen (1m11.861s) in third was only 0.008s behind Perez as Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz (1m12.039s) was fourth with a new ICE installed in his car. The Spaniard is to get a 5-place grid penalty as he headed the Mercedes pair who also put in a late lap.

Lewis Hamilton (1m12.040s) had to undertake multiple laps to be third after his initial quick lap was hampered due to a wide moment. George Russell (1m12.0.55s) was sixth from Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel (1m12.157s) with Haas’ Mick Schumacher (1m12.314s) in eighth.

Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas (1m12.466s) in ninth and AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly (1m12.467s) made it four different cars in the latter part of the Top 10, with Alpine’s Fernando Alonso just missing out. But the Spaniard set his best time on the medium tyres.

As did his teammate Esteban Ocon in 13th behind Williams’ Alexander Albon on the soft tyres. There were twitchy moments for multiple drivers including Verstappen, Sainz, Gasly and Alonso where the Frenchman complained of the car sliding too much.

Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll was 14th after he faced some issues during the session which the team could fix, with McLaren’s Lando Norris in 15th on the medium tyres. The Brit started the weekend after a late scare due to food poisoning.

Nyck de Vries was on standby after a seat fit on Thursday. Haas’ Kevin Magnussen was 16th from Williams’ Nicholas Latifi with Alfa Romeo’s Zhou Guanyu 18th, AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda 19th and McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo 20th – the latter two were on the medium tyres.

In other news, Mercedes were forced to remove the FTX logos from their cars during the FP1 session in F1 Brazil GP after the company filed for bankruptcy just hours before track action kick-started. Until Thursday, the team were waiting for any official news.