This session has finished. No further updates will be posted.
That concludes our coverage of practice – here’s our report and the times.
Piastri moved up to second place but McLaren are denied a one-two at the end of the session by – surprisingly – Nico Hulkenberg in the Sauber. The chequered flag is out.
Verstappen has a dramatic snap of oversteer in the high-speed sequence at the beginning of the lap. He says he wants to pit due to the bottoming but Red Bull tell him to stay out as the chequered flag is coming out and they want him to do a practice start.
Charles Leclerc has been pushed back into the garage, he mentioned on the radio he could smell oil so something appears to have gone badly wrong with his Ferrari.
Lando Norris lowers the best time to a 1’33.294 but he did run wide between the final two corners.
Oscar Piastri only manages the third fastest time on a set of softs, two-tenths off Alonso and Verstappen.
Fernando Alonso surprisingly pips Verstappen’s time by nine thousandths of a second.
Verstappen beats his team mate by almost nine tenths of a second on softs, 1’33.648, virtually matching the fastest time from this session last year.
Now Yuki Tsunoda beats that with a 1’34.531 on softs.
Russell produces a 1’34.675 to go fastest on mediums, Liam Lawson is just a hundredth of a second behind, though.
The Red Bull drivers have gone out on a set of softs, Mercedes and Ferrari have opted for mediums.
Drivers are still circulating on their increasingly worn hard tyres and no improvements are coming at the moment.
“That was quite bad from Albon,” complains Andrea Kimi Antonelli after being delayed by the sole running Williams at the final corner.
Esteban Ocon skids off, saying one of his brakes stuck at 100%.
Norris goes second, fastest of all in the final sector, but half a second off Hamilton.
Sainz’s session appears to be over but Williams say he will be able to participate in sprint race qualifying which starts in three-and-a-half hours.
Sainz’s race engineer Gaetan Jego told him he had a “potential gearbox issue”.
Williams are dismantling Sainz’s car which is bad news for him in the only practice session of the weekend. He is still sixth fastest at the moment.
The session has restarted. Hamilton is still quickest ahead of Verstappen and Russell, with Yuki Tsunoda well up in fourth place. Lando Norris is the fastest McLaren driver in fifth.
The session has been red-flagged due to debris, which seems to have come off Lance Stroll’s Aston Martin at turn 19.
Haas have brought an upgrade for this weekend, their quickest driver at the moment is Esteban Ocon in 13th. Mercedes also have a small tweak for their car but no other teams have brought updates.
Hamilton keeps pressing on and is the first driver to dip under the 1’35 mark with a 1’34.426.
George Russell goes fastest in the middle of the lap but slots in second behind Versatppen.
Verstappen sets a 1’35.426 to lead the times, his car sucking up a lot of dust at various points around the track.
Lando Norris does a 1’36.126 to go fastest, he’s four thousandths of a second ahead of Sainz.
Max Verstappen beats Hamilton’s time with a 1’36.192.
The Aston Martin drivers have switched to hard tyres. Oscar Piastri moves up to second, six-tenths of a second off Hamilton.
Lewis Hamilton puts up a 1’36.666 to lead the early running. That’s three seconds off the pace in this session last year.
The session has begun and the track is immediately busy. Norris takes his time to perform a practice start in the pit lane exit. The Aston Martin pair have gone out on mediums but everyone else has opted for hards.
There is one significant change the teams will have to get used to compared to last year. Pirelli has nominated the C3 and C4 tyres as it did last year (medium and soft respectively) but the hard tyre is the C1 rather than the C2.
This weekend’s round is a sprint event so this is the only hour of practice for all the teams. Of course that means all 10 teams are sticking with their regular race driver line-ups – there will be at least four rookies in practice in Mexico City next week, and probably a few more.
The first practice session for the 2025 United States Grand Prix is coming up next.
2025 United States Grand Prix
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- As it happened: 2025 United States Grand Prix first practice
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