Leclerc leads both Austin practices but expects rivals to unlock more pace

F1 / NEWS & CONTEXTNEWS & CONTEXT

Charles Leclerc topped both Friday sessions at COTA, but said rivals still had performance to unlock and named Kimi Antonelli and Max Verstappen as already looking strong.

From the GPBeat newsroomPublished · 29 Oct 2026, 23:53 · 1 min

Additional race context

Context prepared on · 1 November 2026

This account concerns practice on 23 October and was published after the race. In the subsequent qualifying Antonelli took pole, with Leclerc fourth on the starting grid. Antonelli won the 25 October Grand Prix and Leclerc finished second, 13.078 seconds behind.

Read the full race report · Source 1 · Source 2 · Source 3 · Source 4

Charles Leclerc set the fastest time in both Friday practice sessions at the Circuit of The Americas, but cautioned against treating the early order as settled before qualifying. He said Ferrari’s upgrades had worked as expected, while rival teams still had more performance to unlock.

Leclerc recorded 1:36.052 in FP1 and 1:35.291 in FP2. He singled out Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen as already looking strong, and said both would be among the front-runners in qualifying.

His team-mate Lewis Hamilton finished sixth and fourth in the two sessions. After trying a different set-up direction, he said he was uncomfortable in the car, particularly over the bumps; he and the team would work through the issue that night.

Sources 01