Lando Norris sets USGP pace as F1 world awaits McLaren 'repercussions' for the Briton

Lando Norris set a blistering pace in the sole practice session for the United States Grand Prix. It was an hour-long session at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin that was curtailed by five minutes, due to a red flag after 20 minutes, after Lance Stroll ran very wide through T19, leading to a piece of debris flying off the back of his Aston Martin. Norris posted a time of 1:32.294s, finishing 0.255s clear of a surprise second quickest in Sauber's Nico Hulkenberg. Championship leader Oscar Piastri had to settle for third, 0.279s adrift of his McLaren team-mate. For Norris, he awaits his fate after both he, Piastri and McLaren CEO Zak Brown confirmed there would be "repercussions" for the British driver after he collided with the Australian in the early stages of the last race in Singapore. Norris' lap was just over three-tenths of a second faster than last year's leading practice time, posted by Carlos Sainz, who was then with Williams. Until the red flag after 20 minutes, the time before then had been dominated by hard-tyre running. There were numerous exchanges of the leading time, which for a short period saw Red Bull's Max Verstappen lead the way with a 1:35.426s before Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton comfortably slashed 0.569s off that to move top, with George Russell, in his Mercedes, third at that stage, seven-tenths of a second adrift. It was during the five-minute break that Sainz was forced to step out of his Williams due to a gearbox problem that ended his session, placing him on the back foot going into sprint qualifying, a complete contrast to a year ago. Upon the resumption, Norris managed to split Hamilton and Verstappen, albeit he was still 0.540s behind his fellow Briton. It was the only major move as the teams and drivers opted to focus on higher-fuel running, continuing on the hard tyres. With 10 minutes remaining, it was time for the low-fuel qualifying sessions, with the drivers split between softs and mediums, the latter being used as that compound is mandatory for the first and second sprint qualifying outings. Although Russell became the first driver to go quicker than Hamilton by three-tenths of a second, using the mediums, it was a time that did not last long. On softs, Alonso performed superbly to post a 1:33.639s, only for Norris to slice 0.345s off that time. After Piastri moved second, with a McLaren one-two on the cards, Hulkenberg remarkably split the duo, arguably running a better engine mode than those around him. more follows