Hamilton leads Verstappen by 0.096s in FP1

Lewis Hamilton set the pace in FP1 for the Brazilian Grand Prix as he edged out Max Verstappen by just 0.096s.

On a hot morning at Interlagos, the Mercedes and Red Bull drivers traded fastest times on the soft tyre, with Hamilton ending the session quickest on a 1:11.895. Due to the softer compound being available, Hamilton's lap was just 0.6s off last year's pole time set by Nico Rosberg.

Rosberg himself was third fastest, 0.230s adrift of Hamilton's time, with Daniel Ricciardo a similar margin further back in fourth place. With the Ferrari drivers completing all of their running exclusively on the medium compound tyre, Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen were ninth and tenth respectively.

Vettel's session ended with a spin late on as he lost the rear of his car at Turn 11, sliding wide across the run-off area but rejoining without damage to anything other than his tyres.

As a result of Ferrari's approach, Valtteri Bottas was fifth quickest overall - 1.2s off Hamilton's time - ahead of Sergio Perez, Nico Hulkenberg and Felipe Massa. The quartet were covered by just 0.2s, suggesting another close battle between Force India and Williams in the fight for fourth in the constructors' championship.

Outside the top ten, the Toro Rosso pair of Carlos Sainz and Daniil Kvyat were 11th and 12th respectively, with Kvyat having his running limited to 15 laps as a result of a right rear puncture. After limping back to the pits, the Russian remained in the garage for a long spell as Toro Rosso analysed the rear of his car in search of a cause.

The two McLarens were next on the timing screens ahead of Romain Grosjean in 15th place. Grosjean's team-mate Esteban Gutierrez - who confirmed he will leave Haas next season on Friday morning - sat out the session as Charles Leclerc made another appearance, the Monegasque driver finishing 21st out of the 22 runners.

Bottom of the times was Sergey Sirotkin in the Renault. Sirotkin was filling in for Haas-bound Kevin Magnussen in FP1, but his car came to a halt at the pit lane entry and he was able to complete just ten laps.

Romain Grosjean column: Time for Haas to raise its game

Chris Medland's 2016 Brazilian Grand Prix

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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.