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SportsFormula 1

Leclerc sweeps Friday practice in Austin as Antonelli stays within touching distance

The Ferrari driver was 0.042 seconds quicker than the championship leader in second practice at the United States Grand Prix, with Max Verstappen third.

From the editorial desk · AustinPublished
Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc, fastest in Friday practice in Austin (file photo)
Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc, fastest in Friday practice in Austin (file photo)Photos: Original: Gilzetbase Derivative work: DaanTW / Wikimedia Commons; Byxelized / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0, CC0

Key points

  1. Charles Leclerc topped both practice sessions, setting 1:35.291 in the second.
  2. Kimi Antonelli was 0.042 seconds behind, with Verstappen third and Russell fifth.
  3. Qualifying is at 2:30 am IST on Sunday, with the race later that day.

Charles Leclerc made Ferrari the early pace-setters at the United States Grand Prix, topping both practice sessions at the Circuit of the Americas on Friday. In the second hour he lapped in 1 minute 35.291 seconds, just 0.042 seconds quicker than the championship leader Kimi Antonelli.

Max Verstappen was third for Red Bull, 0.189 seconds off, which made it the second session running with three different teams in the top three. Lewis Hamilton was fourth in the other Ferrari and George Russell fifth for Mercedes, with Liam Lawson, Lando Norris, Oscar Piastri, Isack Hadjar and Ollie Bearman completing the top 10.

Leclerc had already been marginally quicker than Verstappen in the first session, and he stayed ahead through the qualifying simulations and the long runs that followed.

A busy hour for the stewards

Track limits caught out several drivers, with laps deleted for Antonelli, Hadjar, Russell and Hamilton, whose first run on the hard tyre was struck off. Russell was also shown a black-and-white flag for forcing Leclerc off the track, but the stewards took no further action.

Antonelli spent part of the session complaining that his seat was moving over the bumps, and Mercedes made adjustments in the garage. Norris locked up and ran wide during his qualifying runs, and Carlos Sainz, down in 20th, described his Williams as a “mess”.

Why it matters

Antonelli arrived in Texas able to wrap up the title this weekend. He leads team-mate Russell by 102 points and Hamilton by 111 with six races left, and a win on Sunday could make the 20-year-old the youngest champion in the sport’s history, depending on where his rivals finish.

Final practice is at 11 pm IST on Saturday, and qualifying starts at 2:30 am IST on Sunday. This year’s race in Austin has no sprint.

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