Lando Norris led the only free practice session of the Sao Paulo GP on Friday (7th) at Interlagos Circuit. With a great lap in the final moments, the British driver set a time of 1min09s975 and secured the fastest time of the session, overtaking his teammate Oscar Piastri, who had dominated most of the practice. Brazilian driver Gabriel Bortoleto, making his debut at home as a Formula 1 driver, finished in fifth place with a time of 1min10s616.
Similar to 2024, Norris waited until the last moments to take the lead in the free practice session. George Russell led most of the practice with a time set on hard tires. When the drivers switched to medium tires, Oscar Piastri took the lead and remained there until the end of the session. It was in his final lap that Norris made the best time of the session by setting the fastest third sector of the circuit, surpassing everyone and securing first place.
In his Sao Paulo GP debut as a Formula 1 driver, Gabriel Bortoleto showed good performance and finished in fifth place, 0.641 seconds behind Norris. This top 5 result equals his best performance in a free practice session, achieved two weeks ago at the Mexican GP. Bortoleto’s teammate at Sauber, Nico Hulkenberg, finished in third place.
The sprint qualifying that determines the grid for the short Saturday race will take place later today at 3:30 PM (Brasilia time). Follow all the action live on ge!
As for the practice session, all drivers initially took to the track on hard tires. Norris took the lead early on with a time of 1min11s796. He held onto first place for about ten minutes until Russell set a faster time of 1min11s542. Russell improved his time to 1min11s188 and remained in the lead.
With Norris and others heading to the pits, Max Verstappen took advantage of clear track conditions, moving up to second place followed by Carlos Sainz. In the latter part of the session, Oscar Piastri overtook Sainz to enter the top 3.
During the early stages of the session, Yuki Tsunoda spun on one of the kerbs and lost control of his car on the straight. He had both front and rear wing damage, requiring almost 30 minutes in the pits. When he returned to the track, Tsunoda was the first to try soft tires.
With 15 minutes remaining, most drivers switched from hard to medium tires, resulting in faster lap times. Sainz briefly took the lead but was then surpassed by Piastri, who set a time of 1min09s998, and then by Norris. In his final lap, Norris clocked 1min09s975 to take first place, overtaking his teammate Piastri.
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