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F1 United States Grand Prix 2025 Practice Results And Report After Disrupted Session

Originally posted on F1 on SI | By Ewan Gale | Last updated Oct 17, 2025 2:52 PM ET

Lando Norris finished fastest in a disrupted sole practice session for the United States Grand Prix.

The McLaren driver set the benchmark time of a 1:33.294s at the Circuit of the Americas to beat Sauber's Nico Hulkenberg by two tenths — the German stealing the limelight somewhat with his effort.

Championship leader Oscar Piastri was third as a number of drivers hit strife during the critical hour ahead of sprint qualifying.

The opening 20 minutes were run largely on hard tires as drivers set about fine-tuning their cars ready for Friday night's sprint qualifying, with a number of set-up changes completed early on. But preparations were delayed just past the third-way mark to clear up debris from the track at Turn 19.

A strip of carbon fiber came loose off the back of Lance Stroll's Aston Martin as he hit the kerb while rejoining the track after going wide.

RED FLAG

The session has been stopped to clear up some debris on the exit of Turn 19 #F1 #USGP pic.twitter.com/3FkeBml7C2
— Formula 1 (@F1) October 17, 2025

Only five minutes were lost, but with only one practice session for the weekend, every second counted.

The damage left Stroll stranded in the garage as repairs and set-up changes took place, while at Williams, things were even worse.

Carlos Sainz was told to box at the end of his outlap after the red flag, with Williams swiftly confirming his session was done. "Carlos has experienced a problem with his gearbox which we are investigating," a spokesperson said. "He will not join the remainder of FP1 but will ready for Sprint qualifying this afternoon."

Esteban Ocon then went off-track and into the Gravel at Turn 11 in a bizarre incident, where he complained about the brakes of his Haas.

"The brake stayed at 100% all the way!"

A very strange lock-up for Esteban Ocon at the Turn 11 hairpin, but he manages to get back to the garage #F1 #USGP pic.twitter.com/Z2HzNMUohj
— Formula 1 (@F1) October 17, 2025

Hard tire running ended with just under 15 minutes left, with Lewis Hamilton ahead of Norris and Max Verstappen in the top three, but that was to change when softer tires went on.

There was a split between those running the soft tires and those running the mediums — taken by Hamilton, George Russell, Liam Lawson and Isack Hadjar — with the latter compound to be used in SQ1 and SQ2 as per F1's sprint regulations.

With the track ramping up, laptimes tumbled, though not for Charles Leclerc, who pitted after reporting an "oil smell" after asking whether he was allowed to shift gears. That left the Monegasque without a qualifying simulation run.

Not the best of starts for Charles!

He reports a smell of oil in his Ferrari and heads to the garage #F1 #USGP pic.twitter.com/WxFsahS6eZ
— Formula 1 (@F1) October 17, 2025

Hadjar also had to battle an issue with power unit modes being discussed on his team radio.

With a gap in the offered compounds between the hards and mediums, there was a big delta between the two rubber types, and it left the soft-runners at the top of the leaderboard.

It was Norris who led Hulkenberg at the checkered flag, with Piastri in third and Fernando Alonso a stellar fourth.

Max Verstappen was fifth fastest for Red Bull after aborting his final run due to excessive bottoming, while Alex Albon fared better than teammate Sainz to finish sixth in the 2002-throwback Williams colors.

Russell was seventh and Hamilton eighth with both on mediums, as was Hadjar in ninth. Oliver Bearman rounded out the top 10 for Haas.