Sainz leads Leclerc in the only US GP practice session

With the sprint format returning to the Circuit of the Americas for the United States Grand Prix, Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz, who was fastest in the only hour of practice across the three-day race, led team-mate Charles Leclerc and Red Bull's Max Verstappen ahead of Friday afternoon's sprint qualifying.

With all teams Ferrari and Williams undergoing upgrades in Austin – as Formula 1 resumes racing after a three-week break – there was plenty of action from the moment the green light flashed at the end of the pit lane, as drivers tried to dial in their cars for sprint qualifying and Saturday's sprint.

Mercedes – in what the team's trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin called their “most significant update of the year” – caught the eye early on, but for all the wrong reasons, with first Lewis Hamilton and then George Russell suffering dramatic spin-outs. Surface track circuit in America.

While most teams favored hard tires for the main part of the race, with 10 minutes remaining, many squads switched to their softs to test their one-lap pace – with Sainz stopping the clock in 1m 33.602s, just 0.021s off the un-upgraded Ferraris. Leclerc to head.

Max Verstappen took P3 in his upgraded Red Bull RB20, albeit two and a half tenths clear of the Ferrari, as his main title rival Lando Norris finished fourth after waiting until the very last minute of the session to post his lap.