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# What happened in final Brazil F1 practice
- URL: https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/what-happened-in-final-brazil-f1-practice/
- Published: 2026-11-07T15:38:03.000Z
- Updated: 2026-11-07T15:38:03.000Z
- Description: Max Verstappen topped final practice ahead of Formula 1 qualifying at the Brazilian Grand Prix, knowing he’ll take a back-of-the-grid penalty for engine component changes
- Author: Josh Suttill
- Tags: Formula 1, #brazilian-grand-prix, #max-verstappen, #red-bull, #primary_homepage_feature

Max Verstappen topped final practice ahead of Formula 1 qualifying at the Brazilian Grand Prix, knowing he’ll take a back-of-the-grid penalty for engine component changes.

Verstappen is one of four penalised frontrunners - along with the Ferraris (10 places each) and Russell (five-place penalty) - who are already out of the pole position fight in Brazil. 

Verstappen topped FP3 on a 1m11.622s, just 0.025s faster than the new world champion Kimi Antonelli. 

Red Bull made major changes to Verstappen’s car overnight but the four-time world champion was still complaining about his “terrible” steering in FP3\. 

Lando Norris was third-quickest for McLaren, 0.131s slower with Russell’s Mercedes rounding out the top four. 

Charles Leclerc was fifth-fastest, 0.274s slower than Verstappen’s benchmark.

Team-mate Lewis Hamilton didn’t get to conduct a qualifying simulation because he had to pull his Ferrari into the pits with around 25 minutes remaining, due to smoke billowing from his Ferrari. 

That left him 12th-fastest, with his fastest lap set on the mediums. 

Ferrari had just fitted a new internal combustion engine to the cars of both Hamilton and Leclerc. 

Oscar Piastri was sixth ahead of the two Racing Bulls of Arvid Lindblad and Liam Lawson, who were both faster than Red Bull’s Isack Hadjar, 0.628s adrift of Verstappen. 

The top 10 was rounded out by home hero Gabriel Bortoleto’s Audi, with his fellow countryman, rookie Rafael Camara, outpacing Ollie Bearman by over a tenth in 15th place. Camara’s fastest theoretical lap was actually the 12th-best of all the drivers, almost three tenths up on Bearman’s theoretical best. 

Lance Stroll’s Aston Martin managed just seven laps before he was forced to return his car to the garage with an issue that lost him the rest of the session. 

Sergio Perez will face a post-session investigation by the stewards for throwing something out of the cockpit at Turn 8\. 

Even his Cadillac team were confused as his race engineer asked Perez what he threw out of his cockpit. 

"I don't know it was, uh..something came off," Perez explained. "I think the radio, where you put the radio cables, a little box." 

## Session results

1 Max Verstappen (Red Bull) 1m11.622s  
2 Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes) +0.025s  
3 Lando Norris (McLaren) +0.131s  
4 George Russell (Mercedes) +0.184s  
5 Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) +0.274s  
6 Oscar Piastri (McLaren) +0.313s  
7 Arvid Lindblad (Racing Bulls) +0.438s  
8 Liam Lawson (Racing Bulls) +0.549s  
9 Isack Hadjar (Red Bull) +0.591s  
10 Gabriel Bortoleto (Audi) +1.022s  
11 Pierre Gasly (Alpine) +1.022s  
12 Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari) +1.211s  
13 Nico Hulkenberg (Audi) +1.243s  
14 Franco Colapinto (Alpine) +1.303s  
15 Rafael Camara (Haas) +1.359s  
16 Ollie Bearman (Haas) +1.487s  
17 Alex Albon (Williams) +1.525s  
18 Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin) +1.549s  
19 Carlos Sainz (Williams) +1.681s  
20 Sergio Perez (Cadillac) +1.951s  
21 Valtteri Bottas (Cadillac) +2.100s  
22 Lance Stroll (Aston Martin) +3.144s