{"id":639361,"date":"2026-10-23T20:54:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-23T20:54:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/639361\/"},"modified":"2026-10-23T20:54:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-23T20:54:09","slug":"us-grand-prix-charles-leclerc-sets-austin-practice-pace-from-max-verstappen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/639361\/","title":{"rendered":"US Grand Prix: Charles Leclerc sets Austin practice pace from Max Verstappen"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Mercedes have reverted both their cars to the upgraded specification that was introduced in Malaysia two races ago but about which there remain questions over its relative performance.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The team believe that the upgrade has more performance within it, but that they have not yet found the appropriate set-up to maximise it. They hope a full, &#8216;normal&#8217; weekend with three practice sessions will enable them to hone it.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Ferrari have an upgrade here which is fundamentally a new floor. Both Leclerc and Hamilton played down its potential impact.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Hamilton said: &#8220;We have a very, very small upgrade this weekend. It&#8217;s less than a tenth. It&#8217;s like half a tenth.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;So, I don&#8217;t think that propels us forward enough to necessarily challenge that deficit. But maybe the track suits our car, and maybe they&#8217;ll have a one-off weekend. Maybe Mercedes will have an off weekend again, and we&#8217;ll be right there to take it.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mercedes have reverted both their cars to the upgraded specification that was introduced in Malaysia two races ago&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":639362,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[111,139,69,213],"class_list":["post-639361","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/639361","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=639361"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/639361\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/639362"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=639361"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=639361"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=639361"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}