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Hamilton leads Vettel in FP1, Rosberg P7

Lewis Hamilton set the fastest time of FP1 for the Mexican Grand Prix ahead of the two Ferraris as Nico Rosberg ended the session seventh fastest.

The opening session saw a number of different approaches to tyre usage from the top teams, with both Mercedes drivers using the soft compound tyre for a short spell but carrying out the majority of their running on the mediums. Hamilton's best lap came on the hardest of the three compounds available - with the supersoft also being used in Mexico - as did Rosberg's.

AS IT HAPPENED: Mexican Grand Prix - FP1

Ferrari, by contrast, opted to switch to the softs after initial runs on the mediums, leading to Sebastian Vettel going second fastest, just 0.079s off Hamilton's benchmark of 1:20.914. Kimi Raikkonen was third quickest, with exactly the same gap to Vettel as his team-mate had to Hamilton.

Sergio Perez and Nico Hulkenberg pleased the home fans with fourth and fifth in FP1, as both drivers completed all of their running exclusively on the supersoft compound. Perez was just 0.286s off the fastest time of the morning, with Hulkenberg half a second off the pace.

Valtteri Bottas was sixth fastest on the soft tyre, just 0.038s slower than Hulkenberg as Williams started the weekend strongly, with Rosberg, Daniel Ricciardo, Felipe Massa and Daniil Kvyat rounding out the top ten.

The session was delayed for ten minutes just after the half hour after Felipe Nasr's front wing failed, leaving debris on the track. Nasr - carrying the Halo - ran slightly wide exiting Turn 11, with the car vibrating heavily over the exit kerb and the right hand side of his front wing dropping. That half of the wing then folded under the car, shattering under the front right tyre and requiring a red flag to clear the debris.

Soon after the stoppage, Max Verstappen returned to the pits with very hot rear brakes, with Red Bull having to use fire extinguishers before wheeling the car back into the garage. Verstappen didn't return for the rest of the session, with his running ended after ten laps.

With the track low on grip at the start of the weekend, a number of drivers ran wide. Pascal Wehrlein went wide at Turn 2 while also running the Halo on his car, before Jolyon Palmer went off at Turn 12 and Daniil Kvyat spun at Turn 1, a corner where many drivers outbraked themselves throughout the session.

A number of drivers trialled the Halo during the session, with Nasr and Wehrlein being joined by Perez, Massa and Kevin Magnussen in testing the cockpit protection device.

Chris Medland's 2016 Mexican Grand Prix preview

TECHNICAL SNAPSHOT: Austin

Scene at the United States Grand Prix

2017 driver line-ups so far

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Pos	Driver	Team	Time	Laps
01	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1:20.914	34
02	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	1:20.993	23
03	Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari	1:21.072	19
04	Sergio Perez	Force India	1:21.200	23
05	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India	1:21.409	23
06	Valtteri Bottas	Williams	1:21.447	34
07	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1:21.673	32
08	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull	1:21.727	27
09	Felipe Massa	Williams	1:21.836	31
10	Daniil Kvyat	Toro Rosso	1:22.215	29
11	Romain Grosjean	Haas	1:22.500	21
12	Carlos Sainz	Toro Rosso	1:22.563	32
13	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber	1:22.723	17
14	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	1:22.877	10
15	Esteban Gutierrez	Haas	1:22.910	23
16	Fernando Alonso	McLaren	1:23.089	25
17	Felipe Nasr	Sauber	1:23.089	12
18	Jenson Button	McLaren	1:23.342	24
19	Kevin Magnussen	Renault	1:23.556	32
20	Esteban Ocon	Manor	1:24.083	30
21	Jolyon Palmer	Renault	1:24.097	35
22	Pascal Wehrlein	Manor	1:24.350	28

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.