F1: Ferraris 1-2 in Sao Paulo GP Practice

In the only practice session for the 2023 Sao Paulo GP in Brazil Friday, Carlos Sainz Jr. and Charles Leclerc led a Ferrari 1-2.

–by Mark Cipolloni–

Sainz’s lap of 1m11.732s on Pirelli soft tires was 0.108s faster than teammate Leclerc.

Last year’s race winner George Russell was 3rd quick for Mercedes on the Pirelli Medium tires, just 0.133s behind and likely the fastest if he had run the soft tires in an hour where there were some very different strategies and fuel loads in play.

Nico Hulkenberg was 4th quick, 0.196s back while Alex Albon rounded out the top-5 for Williams, 0.312s behind.

Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll was sixth, Pierre Gasly was seventh for Alpine, following by Zhou Guanyu in the Alfa Romeo. Logan Sargeant and Magnussen rounded out the top 10.

Fernando Alonso ended the hour in 11th, with Lewis Hamilton in 12th and the AlphaTauri pair of Yuki Tsunoda and Daniel Ricciardo in 13th and 14th.

Esteban Ocon followed in 15th, ahead of Max Verstappen down in 16th. Both he and Perez – in 18th.

What was Red Bull Up To?

World Champion Max Verstappen never bolted on a second set of tires, instead completing 30 laps on his one set of hards so far. Perez likewise has only used one set of the hard C2 rubber today, Red Bull obviously saving tires for the rest of the weekend and focussing on race setup.

Ferrari ran the hards then softs, as did William’s, Haas and Piastri for McLaren.

Red Bull ran just one set of hards each, Alonso ran two.

AlphaTauri, Mercedes, Alpine, Norris, Stroll and Bottas ran the hards and mediums.

Zhou ran all three compounds.

With McLaren keeping their powder dry, Red Bull and Mercedes not running the softs… It’s very, very hard to call the pecking order ahead of qualifying.

Sao Paulo GP Practice Results.