Leclerc leads Verstappen in United States GP practice

Charles Leclerc set the fastest time in first practice for the United States Grand Prix, leading Max Verstappen by 0.084 seconds as Ferrari topped the opening session at Circuit of The Americas on Friday. Leclerc’s best lap was 1 minute, 36.052 seconds. Lando Norris was third for McLaren, 0.245 seconds behind Leclerc, followed by Mercedes drivers George Russell and Kimi Antonelli. Lewis Hamilton was sixth in the other Ferrari, with McLaren’s Oscar Piastri seventh. The order took shape after teams began the session on different tyre compounds. Ferrari and McLaren initially ran on medium tyres, while Red Bull and Mercedes used the harder compound. The leading teams later switched to soft tyres for faster laps. Verstappen briefly went quickest, but his lap was deleted for exceeding track limits at Turn 19, leaving him second in the classification. Ferrari brought an upgrade to Austin that was described as a fundamentally new floor. Hamilton said its expected gain was less than a tenth of a second, estimating it at about half a tenth, and said it might not be enough to close the team’s performance gap. Leclerc’s pace in practice offered an early measure of the car, but the session...