F1: Ocon tops final practice in Brazil

In a session where every driver was working on race running and not taking too many risks, Alpine’s Esteban Ocon turned the fastest lap in final practice for the Sao Paulo GP in Brazil.

Ocon’s lap of 1m14.604s was 0.184s faster than the Red Bull of Sergio Perez in 2nd and 0.312s faster than George Russell’s Mercedes.

Fernando Alonso was 4th in the 2nd Alpine while Max Verstappen rounded out the top-5 in the #1 Red Bull Honda.

American Logan Sargeant, in Alex Albon’s Williams car was last, but he could not risk crashing Albon’s car and finished just 1.876s off the fastest time – very respectable – and he never put a wheel wrong.  He also ran over 24 laps so he earned 1 Super License point.

A clean session for all drivers, plenty of laps completed, and hopefully more than enough learned.

So practice is done – and next up is the Sprint. A proper racing start, 24 laps of frantic action, no need to pit. Eight points and P1 for the Grand Prix on offer for the winner.

Magnussen will be starting P1 for that for Haas – and if that hasn’t sunk in for the fans, you can bet it hasn’t sunk in for him nor his team. Can he hold off a charging Verstappen? Nothing like having a two-time world champion right on your tail for sharpening one’s focus.

Can Perez, Leclerc and Hamilton recover through the field? Can Alpine hold them off – or will Ocon and Alonso be attacking Norris ahead?

Russell may well want to sit back and watch the fireworks ahead from P3. There are storylines up and down the field, and it’s going to be a fascinating final Sprint of the season.