Leclerc tops US GP practice as Verstappen impresses and Antonelli chases a title

Charles Leclerc finished Friday at the top of the timesheets in Austin, fastest in both practice sessions at the United States Grand Prix. His Ferrari was 0.042 seconds clear of Mercedes' Kimi Antonelli, a margin thin enough that the order behind him mattered as much as the order at the front.

The gap carries extra weight because of Antonelli's situation. He has a mathematical chance of sealing his first world championship this weekend, but only if several things line up: he must win the race, his team-mate George Russell must finish below eighth, and Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton must finish below fourth.

It was Max Verstappen, though, who left the strongest impression. The Red Bull driver was third fastest, 0.189 seconds off Leclerc, with Hamilton fourth, 0.615 seconds from the pace. Russell was fifth, followed by Liam Lawson of Racing Bulls. The more telling evidence came later in the session, during race-simulation runs, which often give a truer read of competitiveness than single laps. Verstappen could be compared directly only with the Ferrari drivers, because all of them ran soft tyres on their long runs. He was marginally faster than Leclerc on average, and the consistency of his pace suggested he was in the best shape, at least on Friday. Hamilton, by contrast, appeared to struggle against Leclerc on both short and long runs.

Ferrari brought an upgrade to Austin, built around a new floor, but Leclerc played down what it offers. He said it felt good but was not the gain he had seen or heard about, calling it a small step forward that still showed on the car. He described a very clean Friday with good balance, yet warned that rivals seemed to gain more than Ferrari from Friday to Saturday, and with such a small gap, he said, the next day would not be easy. He also backed Verstappen's Thursday complaints about the track, calling the surface very poor, with a particularly bumpy first sector.

Lando Norris, the reigning world champion, was seventh fastest in his McLaren, though he set no time on his qualifying simulation on softs after a mistake at Turn 16. On the long runs he was about 0.2 seconds a lap quicker than Verstappen on average, but he was on the hard tyre, so the numbers cannot be compared. McLaren introduced the first of three consecutive planned upgrades this weekend, yet Norris was unhappy. He called the day difficult, said the team seemed a step away from Red Bull and Ferrari and probably Mercedes too, and described a car too hard to drive consistently. Chasing perfection to make it quick, he said, is not realistic. Team-mate Oscar Piastri was eighth, ahead of Red Bull's Isack Hadjar and Haas driver Oliver Bearman.

Mercedes have put both cars back into the upgraded specification introduced in Malaysia two races ago, a package whose relative performance still raises questions. The team believes more performance is in it but has not yet found the set-up to unlock it, and hopes a full weekend with three practice sessions will help. Antonelli said running both cars on the same package lets them try more things and understand it better, but that they are still trying to get the car into the right window.

Three drivers already carry grid penalties for exceeding their permitted engine parts: Racing Bulls' Arvid Lindblad drops five places, Alpine's Franco Colapinto ten, and Audi's Gabriel Bortoleto twenty.

Saturday's qualifying will show whether Ferrari's small gain holds, whether Verstappen's race pace translates to one lap, and whether Mercedes finds its window.