Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc topped the timesheet in the only practice session for the Formula 1 Qatar Grand Prix at the Lusail International Circuit.
Leclerc headed the McLaren duo of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri by over four-tenths in the first hour of running in Lusail this weekend.
The final Sprint weekend of the 2024 season meant that the 20 drivers on the F1 grid had a single hour of practice running on Friday afternoon.
Ferrari looked strong with less than 20 minutes of the session remaining and plenty of laps on the board as Leclerc and Carlos Sainz sat atop the leaderboard.
Intriguingly, their best efforts at that point came on the Hards, with the majority of the field behind them having set their efforts on Mediums.
But track evolution was ongoing and with it grip was increasing and lap times were getting faster.
A blast of Soft tyre runs as the sessions drew to a close saw times tumble even further and as the dust settled in Lusail, Leclerc remained on top of the heap.
The two McLarens of Norris and Piastri sat in good sted in second and third with fourth-placed Sainz showing Ferrari had reason to be optimistic heading into Sprint Qualifying.
RB’s Yuki Tsunoda put in a fine final flying lap to slot himself into the top five ahead of Sauber’s Valtteri Bottas and Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll.
Mercedes, flying high after a one-two in Vegas placed its cars in eighth and 10th with George Russell leading the charge over Lewis Hamilton.
That left Williams’ Alex Albon the filling in a Mercedes sandwich in ninth.
Neither Red Bull could make it into the top-10 with Max Verstappen 11th and Sergio Perez 18th.
Verstappen was 1.2s adrift of Leclerc’s chart-topping time and Perez was a further eight-tenths adrift of his team-mate, but both drivers set their best effort on the Mediums.
12th in the order went to Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso with Haas’ Nico Hulkenberg in 13th.
Liam Lawson has work to do to match his RB team-mate having concluded FP1 in 14th place.
Alpine, a team locked in a three-way fight for sixth in the Constructors’ Championship finished 15th and 20th after FP1 with Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon electing not to complete a soft tyre run.
Haas’ Kevin Magnussen took 16th with Sauber’s Zhou Guanyu and Williams’ Franco Colapinto taking 17th and 19th respectively.
READ MORE – F1 2024 Qatar Grand Prix – FP1 Results
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