2026 Formula 1 Sao Paulo GP
F1 Brazilian GP: Follow FP1 at Interlagos with live timing
Updates from the opening practice session at Formula 1's Brazilian Grand Prix
Live Standings
Live Text
Speaking of Lance Stroll, Max Verstappen complained about him overtaking as the cars lined up to do their practice starts. Calm down, Max! He's just practicing for the day he gets in a race-winning Adrian Newey car.
NORRIS TOPS FP1 AT INTERLAGOS
As FP1 comes to a close, Lando's 1m11.717s remains the fastest lap of all, 0.082s quicker than Kimi Antonelli's 1m11.799s. Max Verstappen P3, 0.236s off Norris.
Lewis Hamilton the fastest of the Ferraris in Charles Leclerc's absence, P4 and 0.324s off Norris.
P5 is George Russell, 0.386s down on the McLaren. Isack Hadjar is P6, 0.439s down.
Thereafter the gap widens - Gabriele Mini in P7 was 0.852s off the P1 time. Good job by the rookie there, though - at the risk of having my DMs invaded, he's just under a tenth quicker than the other Alpine of Franco Colapinto in P9.
Bortoleto's earlier flier left him P8, 0.897s down on Norris, while Liam Lawson rounds out the top 10 almost a second off the absolute pace.
Early days yet, though.
Norris was also quickest in FP1 last year, with a 1m09.975s.
Max exits the pits on the hard tyres with which he started the session - just putting a heat cycle through them before doing a practice start after the chequered flag.
"This is a workout with the steering" says Verstappen on the radio. Jane Fonda would be proud.
Antonelli back out on scrubbed softs as we enter the final minutes of the session.
Oh dear. Beganovic is having a scruffy lap, with a lock-up into Turn 8, then he's told by the team to abort it and return to the pits because of an engine issue.
Verstappen latest report is that his steering is heavier to the left than it is to the right.
F1 TV's screen captions continue to state the obvious as "SLOW Lance Stroll" pops up...
Beganovic is back out on fresh softs and with a new floor.
Fornaroli now allowed a quali sim on soft tyres, and he sets a 1m13.268s - that's P15 for now.
Gabriele Mini does a tidy lap - 1m12.569s, that's quicker than Bortoleto's best so far.
And, lo, the live timing widget springs to life like Bela Lugosi emerging from the grave as Dracula!
Antonelli back out on those scrubbed mediums so it looks like he's done as far as qualifying simulations are concerned for FP1. Norris, Verstappen, Hamilton and Russell are back out on scrubbed softs, as is Colapinto.
Hadjar goes round in 1m12.233s to go P6 between Russell and Bortoleto.
Let's take you down through the field behind the frontrunners after the first few quali simulations:
P8 Colapinto 1m12.654s
P9 Lawson 1m12.715s
P10 Bearman 1m12.837s
P11 Alonso 1m13.017s
P12 Lindblad 1m13.038s
P13 Bottas 1m13.37s
P14 Albon 1m13.511s
That, in the absence of our live timing widget, was 0.082s quicker than Antonelli's flying lap.
Just a brief yellow, then, so it doesn't scupper Bortoleto's quali sim and he goes through in 1m12.614s. That was P5 behind Russell but it's now P6 since Norris has gone fastest of all with a 1m11.717s.
Albon's Williams has stopped just after 'young sow', but he's managed to guide it behind the barrier.
Hamilton's soft-tyre run yields P3 with 1m12.041s, Russell's 1m12.103s for P3 and P4.
Camara now on his first flying lap of the weekend on softs. 1m13.69s is P15 for now.
Beganovich looks like his session may be run - his SF-26 (well, Charles Leclerc's) is back in the garage with its floor off.
Antonelli goes to the top with a clean lap - 1m11.799s. That's 0.154s quicker than Verstappen's flier on that soft compound.
Turn 1 at Interlagos has been an eventful spot over the years. Remember this carambolage between Michael Andretti and Gerhard Berger in 1993?
Photo by: Getty Images
Antonelli hits that bump at Turn 1 and locks up, slithering over the run-off.
Antonelli and Russell heading out on softs. Bottas and Herta, too, at the other end of the timing spectrum.
Colapinto goes third fastest on those softs, 1m13.140s. Albon now going for a quali sim on softs.
Colapinto now out on softs. Everyone else apart from him and Verstappen still circulating on hards on mediums, so you're not missing any sizzling developments in the absence of a functional live timing widget.
If it were up to me, of course, I'd hit the widget with a shoe.
"Unacceptable, man" complains Max Verstappen over the radio. The quality of the downshifts are the subject of his ire.
Nevertheless, he sets the fastest lap so far: 1m11.953s. That's 0.824s quicker than Antonelli's medium-tyre lap, for those awaiting our IT department switching the live timing off and then turning it back on again.
Verstappen now back out on softs - he's the only driver to have done any serious running on those so far. Fornaroli did a handful of single-lap runs on that compound earlier but he was doing aero evaluation runs.
Antonelli goes to the top of the leaderboard with a 1m12.789s, using the same set of mediums he was rolling on before the stoppage.
No further investigation on Herta - he was being looked at for not pitting promptly under the red flag, but replays show he was passing the pit entry when the session was halted.
And the session is back under way with 40 minutes left on the clock.
Colton Herta 'Noted' for a red flag infringement.
It appears that our live timing widget has gone the way of Slater's Audi. Tech support is looking into it.
Today's drinking game, by the way, is to have two fingers of the beverage of your choice every time someone in TV commentary pronounces Turn 12 (Juncao) to rhyme with "young cow".
DRAPEAU ROUGE
Session has been stopped because Freddie Slater's Audi had coughed its last between Turn 9 (Pinheirinho) and Turn 10 (Bico de Pato).
Colton Herta, Lance Stroll and Alex Albon suffering separate lock-ups into Turn 1 - judging by the ugly noise accompanying the in-car footage, bottoming out on a bump played a role in all of them.
Lewis Hamilton was quickest on 1m13.298s, set with hard Pirellis, but he's quickly been surpassed by a 1m13.044s set by Kimi Antonelli on mediums, then Max Verstappen with a 1m12.959s – the Porsche fraction! – on hards.
Early days yet, of course, under a cloudy sky with rain threatening.
By: Stuart Codling
