Charles Leclerc topped the first practice session of the United States Grand Prix with a 1:36.052 on soft tyres, 0.084 seconds ahead of Max Verstappen and 0.245s clear of Lando Norris. It was a session defined as much by lap times being taken away as by lap times being set: Race Control issued 67 deletion notices for track limits, and one of them cost Verstappen the quickest lap of the hour.

Verstappen’s 1:35.860, set on lap 14 on softs, was cancelled for leaving the track at Turn 19, which left his official best at 1:36.136. Leclerc’s own best came on lap 12, on a barely used set of softs; a 1:36.149 of his had also been cancelled at Turn 12.

Ferrari and Red Bull set the pace

Leclerc completed 26 laps in four stints (mediums, then two sets of softs, then mediums again) and set his time on lap 12. Lewis Hamilton was sixth, 0.503s behind his team-mate, on his best lap on a seven-lap-old set of softs. Verstappen did 25 laps in three stints (hards, then two sets of softs).

McLaren were close behind at the front. Norris was third, 0.245s off the top; Oscar Piastri was seventh, 0.734s behind Leclerc and 0.489s behind his team-mate.

Russell ahead of the championship leader

The Mercedes pair were fourth and fifth, with George Russell 0.326s off the pace and Kimi Antonelli 0.481s off. The championship leader, 102 points clear of Russell before this weekend, was therefore 0.155s slower than his team-mate; a 1:36.513 from Antonelli had been deleted for track limits at Turn 20.

Track limits take over the session

Race Control issued 67 notices deleting lap times for exceeding track limits, spread across 21 of the 22 drivers. Turn 12 alone accounted for 26 of them, ahead of Turn 20 (18 notices) and Turns 11 and 19 (seven each). Audi’s Nico Hülkenberg collected the most notices, eight, some for the same lap.

The deletions reshuffled the order. Isack Hadjar had a 1:36.490 cancelled at Turn 12, a time that would have put him fifth; he is classified 14th on 1:37.790. Verstappen’s cancelled lap would have been the quickest of the session by 0.192s. Expect those corners — Turns 12 and 20 in particular — to be watched closely in qualifying.

Softs for every fast lap

Every one of the top ten set its best lap on soft tyres, nine of them on a set with four laps or fewer. The rest of the field was spread across mediums and hards in long, split programmes — Mercedes’ Russell, for instance, used six stints.

Conditions were dry throughout: air temperature went from 27.0°C to 28.6°C, track temperature from 39.1°C to 43.1°C and humidity fell from 34% to 26%. Haas’s Oliver Bearman and Esteban Ocon shared the highest speed through the trap, 330 km/h.

The three fastest laps, compared

The video below puts Leclerc, Verstappen and Norris on the circuit together, each on their official best lap — cancelled laps excluded — at twice the real speed. The track takes the colour of whoever was quickest in each sector, and the finish is replayed in slow motion.

FP1 · Leclerc, Verstappen and Norris on their best valid laps (x2 speed).

What to watch in FP2

The second session starts at 16:00 in Austin, 23:00 in Paris. With the Friday order this close — the top seven within 0.734s — long runs and fuel-corrected pace will say more than single laps, and the limits at Turn 12 will again decide how much of that pace is allowed to count.

Sources

Classification, laps, tyres, deletions and weather: OpenF1 session results, laps, stints, race control messages and weather for the United States Grand Prix FP1 (session 11389). Deletion counts are the number of Race Control notices; a lap flagged at two corners counts twice.

Championship context: our United States GP preview.