Charles Leclerc set the early pace by topping the opening practice session of the 2026 Formula 1 United States Grand Prix weekend at Circuit of The Americas. The Ferrari driver clocked a competitive lap time of 1m 36.052s on Soft tyres to lead the field during a busy opening hour of track action in Austin.
Competition at the sharp end of the timesheets was fierce right from the start. Max Verstappen slot in just 0.084s behind in second place. The reigning world champion's session also featured a notable change in the garage, with Tom Hart stepping in to take over race engineering duties for the Dutchman this weekend.
Meanwhile, Lando Norris completed the top three, finishing 0.245s off the pace. McLaren CEO Zak Brown expressed an upbeat outlook ahead of the competitive sessions, noting, "I think we’ll be good here this weekend. The team to beat is hard to tell as the top four teams have been alternating every weekend. It’s been Red Bull for the last few, Ferrari have come out of the gate strong. I feel good, but I think it’s too early to tell out of the big four who will be on the front row."
The session also saw rookie running with Colton Herta stepping into Sergio Perez’s car for Cadillac during the hour-long session. On track, George Russell endured a messy moment when he locked up and slid into the Turn 5 run-off area. Alpine's Pierre Gasly provided live insights to broadcasters, summarizing the track conditions by admitting it was a good session with plenty to work on and an extremely bumpy surface.
Williams endured a particularly difficult morning as both cars spent the majority of the hour locked inside the garage. With just ten minutes remaining, neither car had set a representative time. When Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon finally emerged to test new parts, Sainz could only manage P19, while Albon had his lap time deleted for exceeding track limits. Williams notably remained the only team on the grid not to run the Soft compound tyre during the session. Read our in-depth analysis and catch all the latest updates right here.
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