In his first official Formula 1 tests after the tests in Barcelona and Austria, Palou drove the Australian Daniel Ricciardo’s car with good feelings in Austin.
He only had one set of tires (medium) and his plan for the session was defined, first with sensors in an ephemeral touchdown and, later, two runs to gain confidence.
The objective of the 2021 IndyCar champion, in addition to gaining experience in the premier category of motorsport, was not to damage the car, something that he achieved and that he could not avoid, for example, another of the unofficial drivers who took part in the session, the Italian Antonio Giovinazzi.
After having been at the wheel of Alfa Romeo last year, Giovinazzi took the controls of a Haas, that of the Dane Kevin Magnussen and seven minutes into the session he lost control of the car and went against the protections. There he was hooked and there was a red flag on the track, but it was momentary, just one minute.
Palou, who wore number 28, was caught by that first incident in the pits, where he arrived with some technical problem, which McLaren resolved. When he resumed practice, he seemed relaxed, at least in the radio messages with the team: “This car is crazy.”
Also on the track, the Mexican Sergio “Checo” Pérez, who will race at home next week, set a first benchmark time (1:40.549)a record that was then broken by the Spanish rider from Alpine Fernando Alonso (1:39.555) and the Asturian’s teammate, the Frenchman Esteban Ocon (1:38.810), who debuted on a flat bottom.
The already champion, the Dutch Max Verstappen, also took the lead (1:37.462), the Canadian Lance Stroll improved it by two thousandths with his Aston Martin and Carlos Sainz (Ferrari) was in first position (1:36.557) with a new game of soft.
Following the Spaniard, in the final classification of the session, were Verstappen (1:37.081) and the British Lewis Hamilton (1:37.332).
Stroll fell to fourth place, Pérez was fifth and Fernando Alonso, sixth, was ahead of the Mercedes of George Russell and his teammate, who was eleventh.
Palou, who completed 21 laps, was second among the unofficial drivers (1:39.911), only behind Russian-Israeli Robert Shwartzman (1:38.951), who drove Leclerc’s Ferrari and also set his best time with soft tires.
With the same compounds as the other McLaren, that of the British Lando Norris, the difference was just 26 hundredths, although when his partner wore soft shoes, the distance grew (1:37.856)
Along with them and Gioviniazzi, the Frenchman Théo Pourchaire, at the wheel of Valtteri Bottas’s Alfa Romeo, and the American Logan Sargeant, who participated with Nicholas Latifi’s Williams, ran.