F1 results: Perez, Ocon fastest in Brazilian GP practice sessions

Perez was fastest in FP1, held on Friday morning, while Ocon set the pace in Saturday’s FP2, which was run after the eventful qualifying session topped by Haas driver Kevin Magnussen but ahead of the sprint race.

Brazilian Grand Prix FP1 results: Perez fastest from Leclerc

Cla	Driver	Chassis	Laps	Time	Gap	Interval	km/h
1	Sergio Perez	Red Bull	29	1'11.853			215.890
2	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	31	1'11.857	0.004	0.004	215.878
3	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	28	1'11.861	0.008	0.004	215.866
4	Carlos Sainz	Ferrari	30	1'12.039	0.186	0.178	215.333
5	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	25	1'12.040	0.187	0.001	215.330
6	George Russell	Mercedes	24	1'12.055	0.202	0.015	215.285
7	Sebastian Vettel	Aston Martin	30	1'12.157	0.304	0.102	214.981
8	Mick Schumacher	Haas	27	1'12.314	0.461	0.157	214.514
9	Valtteri Bottas	Alfa Romeo	31	1'12.466	0.613	0.152	214.064
10	Pierre Gasly	AlphaTauri	32	1'12.467	0.614	0.001	214.061
11	Fernando Alonso	Alpine	25	1'12.554	0.701	0.087	213.804
12	Alex Albon	Williams	29	1'12.633	0.780	0.079	213.572
13	Esteban Ocon	Alpine	30	1'12.705	0.852	0.072	213.360
14	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin	26	1'12.759	0.906	0.054	213.202
15	Lando Norris	McLaren	28	1'12.955	1.102	0.196	212.629
16	Kevin Magnussen	Haas	25	1'12.997	1.144	0.042	212.507
17	Nicholas Latifi	Williams	32	1'13.019	1.166	0.022	212.443
18	Zhou Guanyu	Alfa Romeo	30	1'13.115	1.262	0.096	212.164
19	Yuki Tsunoda	AlphaTauri	32	1'13.347	1.494	0.232	211.493
20	Daniel Ricciardo	McLaren	28	1'13.359	1.506	0.012	211.458
View full results

What happened in Brazilian GP Free Practice 1?

Perez set the early pace, after team-mate Verstappen ran off the road on his opening flyer at Descida do Lago, but the two-time world champion was quickly back on track and took his place at the top of the timesheet with 1m14.104s.

Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas first equalled that, then beat it with 1m13.807s on medium tyres. Running on hards, Verstappen responded with 1m13.646s, taking P1 back by 0.161s. He then lowered that to 1m13.575s.

Perez was first to switch to the soft tyres and unleashed a 1m11.853s that Verstappen, still complaining about a lack of grip from the front-end of his car, failed to beat by 0.008s.

Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc jumped to second spot in the closing stages, just 0.004s off Perez and the same amount in front of Verstappen.

Carlos Sainz was fourth quickest for Ferrari, 0.186s off the pace but one thousandth of a second ahead of Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes. The Mercedes of George Russell was sixth fastest, ahead of Sebastian Vettel (Aston Martin), Mick Schumacher (Haas) and Bottas.

Brazilian Grand Prix FP2 results: Ocon fastest from Perez

Cla	Driver	Chassis	Laps	Time	Gap	Interval	km/h
1	Esteban Ocon	Alpine	28	1'14.604			207.929
2	Sergio Perez	Red Bull	36	1'14.788	0.184	0.184	207.418
3	George Russell	Mercedes	31	1'14.916	0.312	0.128	207.063
4	Fernando Alonso	Alpine	29	1'15.049	0.445	0.133	206.696
5	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	30	1'15.098	0.494	0.049	206.562
6	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	33	1'15.137	0.533	0.039	206.454
7	Pierre Gasly	AlphaTauri	32	1'15.636	1.032	0.499	205.092
8	Mick Schumacher	Haas	40	1'15.684	1.080	0.048	204.962
9	Kevin Magnussen	Haas	38	1'15.815	1.211	0.131	204.608
10	Lando Norris	McLaren	25	1'15.851	1.247	0.036	204.511
11	Carlos Sainz	Ferrari	38	1'15.856	1.252	0.005	204.497
12	Yuki Tsunoda	AlphaTauri	32	1'15.865	1.261	0.009	204.473
13	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	37	1'15.868	1.264	0.003	204.465
14	Daniel Ricciardo	McLaren	28	1'15.994	1.390	0.126	204.126
15	Valtteri Bottas	Alfa Romeo	34	1'16.047	1.443	0.053	203.984
16	Nicholas Latifi	Williams	34	1'16.181	1.577	0.134	203.625
17	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin	43	1'16.263	1.659	0.082	203.406
18	Sebastian Vettel	Aston Martin	44	1'16.400	1.796	0.137	203.041
19	Zhou Guanyu	Alfa Romeo	37	1'16.468	1.864	0.068	202.861
20	Logan Sargeant	Williams	28	1'16.480	1.876	0.012	202.829
View full results

What happened in Brazilian GP Free Practice 2?

This session occurred on Saturday morning ahead of the sprint event, so it was more about race pace and data gathering than evaluating raw speed.

Ferrari set the early bar, with Leclerc lapping a tenth faster than Sainz. Perez went to the top with 1m15.539s on the hard tyres, a tenth ahead of Hamilton. Russell then took over with 1m15.115s on softs and then lowered the P1 time to 1m14.916s.

Alpine’s Ocon then beat that with 1m14.604s at the halfway point, three tenths clear of Russell.

Perez rose to second in the closing stages on softs, 0.184s off Ocon. Russell stayed third, ahead of Fernando Alonso’s Alpine. Verstappen was fifth fastest, from Hamilton and Pierre Gasly (AlphaTauri). Sprint pole winner Magnussen was ninth for Haas, while neither Ferrari made the top 10.

Nicolas Latifi suffered a brief off early on at Juncao but continued in his Williams. He was partnered in this session by his planned replacement next year, Logan Sargeant, the F2 racer deputising for Alex Albon to gain an extra superlicence point towards his quota.