Ferrari starts dominating in the United States with Sainz at the front and Alonso, ninth

After a four-week break, Formula 1 returns this weekend with the United States Grand Prix, hosted by the Austin circuit. There are six races left until the end of a World Championship that in recent races has been compressed by a McLaren that has already taken away Red Bull’s dominant car status for several tests. Most of the teams have taken advantage of these holidays to bring improvements, but the big surprise has come from Ferrari, which has shown itself to be dominant both in qualifying pace and in the (few) long runs that they have been able to do in the first and only training sessions. free this weekend. Those from Maranello have not brought any updates but their two drivers have taken the first two positions in the time table.

The best time was recorded by Carlos Sainz (1m33s602) who, despite not marking any of the three sectors in purple, was the most consistent in his fast lap. His teammate Charles Leclerc stayed very close to him, second, 21 hundredths behind the Spaniard. Taking into account that the route reaches 5.5 kilometers, the distance between the Spanish and the Monegasque is tiny. The leader of the drivers’ championship, Max Verstappen, completed the ‘top 3’, somewhat further behind the red cars (+0.253s).

Ferrari imposes its law

The two drivers from the Maranello team were only separated by 21 hundredths

After them, the ‘papaya’ appeared, and far from being satisfied with the performance of their car, they have once again brought a very significant package of updates. Both Norris (4th) and Piastri (5th) focused a lot on testing these new parts and it seems that they hid something in their fast laps. Those from Woking seem to have an ace up their sleeve.

Sixth and seventh places went to Lewis Hamilton and George Russell. Mercedes is another of the teams that has introduced many changes to its car. The two British drivers suffered some bounce from their car and the seven-time world champion suffered a spin in which he had to show his composure to avoid an accident.

All eyes were also on Aston Martin. In the last few grands prix, its status as the fifth team had been diluted and the Haas and Williams lurked in the middle zone of the Silverstone-based team. The morphology of the AMR24 that has taken to the Austin track is different from that seen in previous races. For the British team, this package is very important, since it can mark the line of development for the 2025 vehicle and, above all, to see if they can find the key that brings them closer to the noble zone of the classification.

Aston Martin updates

Alonso’s time and pace in free practice seem to show that the car’s improvements are working

Although it is hasty to draw conclusions from a 60-minute session, the pace of the green car has been good and Fernando Alonso has managed to be ninth, staying half a second behind Sainz. The result, however, can be somewhat bittersweet: Haas also seems to have improved and Kevin Magnussen has achieved a better time than the Asturian.

However, the moment of truth comes this Friday with the classification for the sprint (11:30 p.m.), a format that returns to this grand prix. This short race will be held on Saturday (8:00 p.m.) and at midnight the qualification for Sunday’s race will take place (9:00 p.m.).