F1 News, Reports and Race Results

Hamilton tops FP1 as Mercedes dominates in Austin

Lewis Hamilton was fastest in FP1 for the United States Grand Prix as Mercedes enjoyed an advantage of nearly two seconds over the rest of the field.

The defending champion was 0.3s clear of championship leader Nico Rosberg in the opening session as both Mercedes drivers improved by a second on the soft tyre having completed early running on the supersofts. The margin between Hamilton and Max Verstappen in third place was 1.951s, although both Red Bulls only used the medium compound tyre.

Ferrari also used the soft tyre and Kimi Raikkonen was fourth quickest, just 0.028s slower than Verstappen. On more than one occasion this season, Mercedes has enjoyed a large advantage over its rivals in FP1 before the gap closes throughout the weekend, but it was an ominous start from the constructors' champions.

Nico Hulkenberg was fifth quickest for Force India, less than 0.1s ahead of Valtteri Bottas for Williams. Both drivers set their times on soft tyres after running the Halo at the start of the session, with Bottas testing a white version of the cockpit protection device in order to blend in with the Williams livery.

Daniel Ricciardo was seventh on the medium tyre, just ahead of former Red Bull team-mate Sebastian Vettel in eighth. Vettel ran wide at Turn 19 - the penultimate corner - with 25 minutes of the session remaining and damaged his car on the kerb, with a piece of bodywork breaking his right hand wing mirror, which Vettel then held on to for a full lap before pitting.

Vettel wasn't the only driver to have an off-track moment, with Daniil Kvyat - who also ran the Halo - spinning at Turn 18, while Jolyon Palmer also had a spin at the same corner. Palmer later blocked Vettel at Turn 8 to receive a gesture from the German. Kvyat ended the session ninth fastest with Carlos Sainz also in the top ten, but the two Toro Rossos set their best times on supersoft tyres.

It was a tricky first session in front of home fans for Haas, with Romain Grosjean 14th, just ahead of team-mate Esteban Gutierrez. After Grosjean lost a piece of bodywork over the kerbs of the high-speed corners in the first sector, Gutierrez ran over the debris a few moments later. Both drivers then stopped at the end of the pit lane late in the session, line astern, and had to be recovered by the Haas mechanics.

Another driver to struggle during the session was Jenson Button, who limped back to the pits late on to bring his session to a slightly premature end in 18th place.

Button ended the session 0.2s adrift of Alfonso Celis driving for Force India in FP1, while there was a Friday practice debutant in the form of Jordan King for Manor. King had a solid session ending up 20th overall, splitting the two Renaults and nearly two seconds quicker than team-mate Esteban Ocon, although he ran softs compared to medium tyres for all those around him.

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Pos	Driver	Team	Time	Laps
01	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1:37.428	25
02	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1:37.743	27
03	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	1:39.379	28
04	Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari	1:39.407	21
05	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India	1:39.712	27
06	Valtteri Bottas	Williams	1:39.776	30
07	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull	1:39.963	26
08	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	1:39.988	15
09	Daniil Kvyat	Toro Rosso	1:40.131	16
10	Carlos Sainz	Toro Rosso	1:10.140	26
11	Felipe Massa	Williams	1:40.191	27
12	Felipe Nasr	Sauber	1:40.287	16
13	Fernando Alonso	McLaren	1:40.362	26
14	Romain Grosjean	Haas	1:40.826	15
15	Esteban Gutierrez	Haas	1:40.970	15
16	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber	1:41.170	17
17	Alfonso Celis	Force India	1:41.422	27
18	Jenson Button	McLaren	1:41.663	21
19	Kevin Magnussen	Renault	1:41.942	22
20	Jordan King	Manor	1:42.012	29
21	Jolyon Palmer	Renault	1:42.332	31
22	Esteban Ocon	Manor	1:43.874	27

Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.