This session has finished. No further updates will be posted.
Piastri leads Norris in first practice with Verstappen sixth. Here’s the report.
FP1 has finished and Oscar Piastri is fastest. Report to follow.
Leclerc fell to 14th, gets a clean lap together but it’s only good enough for eighth.
Lots of drivers having dusty moments – Russell the latest.
Now Norris samples the gravel trap at the exit of the final corner.
Verstappen, now sixth, has pitted.
Piastri goes quickest of all in the first and third sectors and sets a personal best in the second to nick the top time off Norris with a 1’20.924.
Tsunoda crosses the line six tenth of a second slower than his team mate in 14h.
Norris produces a 1’20.982, fastest by almost four-tenths of a second from Piastri. Verstappen goes third, almost half a second off Norris.
Alonso and Sainz beat Hadjar, the Aston Martin driver on a 1’21.562. Verstappen, Norris and Piastri are out on softs now too.
Liam Lawson, complaining about a lack of stability, goes ninth.
Isack Hadjar goes quickest of all on softs with a 1’21.819, well over half a second quicker than Bearman.
Some drivers have switched to the soft tyres now. Oliver Bearman jumps up to fourth with a 1’22.394.
Verstappen: “This clipping out of six is a disaster. Just no pace out of the corner.”
Verstappen: “Feels like the damping is really bad on the car.”
Russell remains fastest, Norris has quietly ascended to fourth place, 0.379s off the pace.
Norris has moved up to 11th place within eight tenths of a second of Russell. Few others improving now.
Wood: “Bottas opening behind, Bottas opening behind.” Tsunoda: “I didn’t know Bottas was driving, mate.”
Leclerc: “I cannot feel a thing. Really frustrating.”
Now Norris gets into the gravel on the outside of turn 14.
Norris – currently at the bottom of the times after pitting for a while – has a brief off at turn 10.
Verstappen cruises up behind Pierre Gasly not especially quickly, then complains about the Alpine driver not leaving him enough room: “Oh my God, mate, who’s this? Blind idiot.”
Russell has more, however, fastest in the first and third sectors, and a 1’22.165 puts him on top by two tenths of a second.
Andrea Kimi Antonelli makes it a Mercedes one-two, setting a 1’22.769. But Verstappen goes quickest in sector one again and beats that by two-tenths of a second.
Charles Leclerc also unhappy with his handling: “I don’t feel a thing with this power steering.”
Verstappen has a snap of oversteer in turn seven and runs wide. “The steering feels really weird suddenly,” he reports.
Russell immediately beats Piastri’s time with a 1’22.962.
Not much sparking from the underside of Piastri’s McLaren as he produces two purple sectors and goes top with a 1’23.039, three tenths of a second faster than Verstappen. Norris pits behind him.
Ten minutes, in, Verstappen leads Sainz’s Williams by five-hundredths of a second.
Verstappen goes back to the top with a 1’23.343. Piastri slots in behind him, just under two tenths of a second slower.
The times are tumbling – Hulkenberg goes back to the top with a 1’24.225.
Russell beats Verstappen’s time by a quarter of a second, fastest through the final sector. The McLarens are fourth and ninth after their first runs, Oscar Piastri ahead of Lando Norris.
Nico Hulkenberg sets a 1’26.523 to head the times until Max Verstappen beats it by almost one and a half seconds.
Every drier has headed out on the hard tyres so far. Lance Stroll is the 19th driver to join the track, his team mate Fernando Alonso hasn’t made it out yet.
The session has begun. Last year’s grand prix pole-winner George Russell leads the cars out.
Drivers will have to use the medium and soft compound tyres in sprint race qualifying this afternoon. Pirelli has imposed a 25-lap maximum limit on stint lengths for this grand prix, meaning drivers will have to pit twice on Sunday.
There have been a few small changes to the run-off areas this year. Extra gravel strips have been added at turns six, 10 and 14, while the gravel trap at turn 14 has been extended.
This is the only hour of practice this weekend as it is the sixth and final sprint event of the season.
The first practice session for the 2025 Qatar Grand Prix is coming up next.
2025 Qatar Grand Prix
- Newey “determined not to dilute” his focus on car design in team principal role
- Russell hoping FIA will extend DRS zone for Qatar Grand Prix
- “I’ll f***ing do it to him tomorrow”: How Sainz’s tactics infuriated Leclerc
- Verstappen expects sprint race “will not be a lot of fun” with “really bad bouncing”
- Piastri claims sprint race pole position ahead of Russell and Norris