Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton started off the Formula 1 US Grand Prix weekend topping a wet first practice session at the Circuit of the Americas.
As expected, it was a wet start to the US GP weekend with rain falling continuously as the drivers could only use the full wets and the intermediate compounds only. Hamilton topped with a 1m47.502s lap time from Mercedes’ teammate Bottas (1m48.806s).
Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen (1m48.847s) was third from teammate Daniel Ricciardo (1m49.326s) in fourth followed by the two Ferrari drivers Sebastian Vettel (1m49.489s) and Kimi Raikkonen (1m49.928s) – the former had an off-moment during his run.
Renault’s Carlos Sainz (1m50.665s) ended up as the best of the rest in seventh from Haas’ Romain Grosjean (1m50.821s) as Sauber’s Charles Leclerc (1m50.961s) and Marcus Ericsson (1m51.016s) rounded out the Top 10.
The Monegasque made a late improvement to get inside the Top 10. He was also the driver to bring out a red flag early in the session after he went off and brought gravel on the circuit which had to be cleared.
With Leclerc’s improvement, it pushed McLaren’s Fernando Alonso (1m51.036s) to 11th with teammate Lando Norris (1m51.232s) in 12th – deputising for Stoffel Vandoorne, who flew in late from Valencia where he has been testing with HWA Racelab in Formula E.
Toro Rosso’s Pierre Gasly (1m51.234s) was 13th with Racing Point Force India’s Sergio Perez (1m51.459s) in 14th from Williams’ Sergey Sirotkin (1m51.589s) and Haas’ Kevin Magnussen (1m51.614s).
Racing Point Force India’s Esteban Ocon (1m51.655s) finished 17th as the Frenchman was slotted back in the car after the team initially was to run reserve Nicholas Latifi. Instead, Latifi will run in Abu Dhabi GP.
The 22 runners saw Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg (1m51.717s) was 18th with Williams’ Lance Stroll (1m51.896s) and Toro Rosso’s Sean Gelael (1m52.625s) – the Indonesian getting his first chance this season in place of Brendon Hartley.