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For the first time since the 2022 season, the Circuit of the Americas will not host a Formula 1 Sprint weekend. This means that drivers will head into qualifying without having taken part in any competitive session on Friday or the Sprint on Saturday.

Friday belonged to Charles Leclerc at the United States Grand Prix. The Monegasque driver topped both FP1 and FP2, with Max Verstappen and Kimi Antonelli finishing closest to him in the respective sessions.

It is an important weekend in the drivers' championship, as Kimi Antonelli has his first match point to become the youngest Formula 1 world champion ever. The Mercedes driver is currently 102 points ahead of George Russell and 111 points ahead of Lewis Hamilton. He needs to extend his lead over his closest rivals to 125 points to clinch the title at the Circuit of the Americas.

Leclerc said they need to keep both feet on the ground after Friday. "The feeling is quite good, but we need to be careful. Obviously, it's only Friday, and we are seeing what we expected. But, again, it's definitely not what everybody thinks in terms of of upgrade and lap time gains"

He continued: "I think the balance of the car was good, and straight away, we started in a in a good window, and that paid off. And and obviously, all the hard work that has been done in order to bring this upgrade as soon as possible is also helping us a little bit, but we shouldn't carry too high expectations going into tomorrow because I felt like the others have more potential to unlock for sure."

The Monegasque driver also named his rivals: "I mean, Kimi and Max seem to be very, very strong. The McLaren, I don't really know yet. I don't think they put everything together yet, but Kimi and Max will definitely be up there."