Brazilian GP: Hamilton leads dominant Mercedes 1-2 in FP1

The Briton's FP1-topping effort now stands as the new Interlagos track record, surpassing the 1m09.822s recorded by Ferrari's Rubens Barrichello in qualifying in 2004.

Hamilton, who clinched the 2017 drivers' title two weeks ago in Mexico, headed teammate Valtteri Bottas by a tenth in FP1 as the Silver Arrows monopolised the top spots throughout the 90-minute session.

Red Bull's Mexican GP winner Max Verstappen was the only driver to set a laptime in the first 10 minutes – but his initial benchmark was quickly surpassed by the soft-shod Mercedes of Bottas, the Finn ending his first run on a 1m10.102s laptime.

This kept him top until he emerged for a second run on the same set of softs – and, as teammate Hamilton moved to within 0.072s of the benchmark, Bottas improved to 1m09.941s.

But the newly-crowned champion's next effort, arriving at around the half-hour mark, then broke the circuit lap record – and the Briton subsequently improved twice more to end up at 1m09.445s.

As the session passed its halfway point, Bottas ventured out on supersofts and briefly took the top spot from Hamilton, only for his teammate to respond immediately.

Hamilton's 1m09.202s would be enough to keep him top of the session until the chequered flag, with the Mercedes duo focusing on supersoft long runs from that point on.

Kimi Raikkonen led Ferrari's efforts in third, half a second behind Hamilton and just 0.006s clear of fourth-placed Verstappen.

The Dutchman's teammate Daniel Ricciardo in turn edged Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel for fifth, the German's FP1 run punctuated by an early spin at the hairpin-like Turn 9 left-hander.

Williams driver Felipe Massa, who recently announced his retirement from F1 at the end of the season, was seventh on home soil, and the last driver to lap within a second of Hamilton.

Stoffel Vandoorne, finally in possession of McLaren's upgraded front wing, outpaced teammate Fernando Alonso, with the pair – in eighth and 10th - split by Force India's Esteban Ocon.

Lance Stroll was half a second of Williams teammate Massa in 11th, with the Canadian's former F3 rival George Russell – replacing Sergio Perez at Force India in FP1 for his grand prix weekend debut – taking 12th, six tenths behind Ocon.

Haas duo Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen followed in 13th and 14th, with Antonio Giovinazzi – who was originally slated to contest FP1 in the Dane's Haas car – having had his outing delayed until FP2.

Nico Hulkenberg, who annoyed Hamilton with a forceful move down the inside of the Juncao left-hander, trailed the fellow Renault of Carlos Sainz in 16th, while Sauber's FP1 stand-in Charles Leclerc headed team regular Marcus Ericsson in 17th.

Toro Rosso, plagued with reliability issues as of late, was bottom of the standings in both laptime and mileage, managing little in the way of meaningful running.

While Pierre Gasly ended up 4.8s adrift with five laps to his name, teammate Brendon Hartley, celebrating his 28th birthday, suffered yet another failure and had to leave his heavily-smoking STR12 at the side of the track without getting to start a single timed lap.

Cla	Driver	Chassis	Engine	Laps	Time	Gap
1	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	Mercedes	36	1'09.202
2	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes	Mercedes	43	1'09.329	0.127
3	Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari	Ferrari	32	1'09.744	0.542
4	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	TAG	31	1'09.750	0.548
5	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull	TAG	38	1'09.828	0.626
6	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	Ferrari	32	1'09.984	0.782
7	Felipe Massa	Williams	Mercedes	28	1'10.102	0.900
8	Stoffel Vandoorne	McLaren	Honda	26	1'10.402	1.200
9	Esteban Ocon	Force India	Mercedes	36	1'10.454	1.252
10	Fernando Alonso	McLaren	Honda	24	1'10.476	1.274
11	Lance Stroll	Williams	Mercedes	42	1'10.632	1.430
12	George Russell	Force India	Mercedes	29	1'11.047	1.845
13	Romain Grosjean	Haas	Ferrari	29	1'11.188	1.986
14	Kevin Magnussen	Haas	Ferrari	30	1'11.463	2.261
15	Carlos Sainz Jr.	Renault	Renault	32	1'11.467	2.265
16	Nico Hulkenberg	Renault	Renault	35	1'11.608	2.406
17	Charles Leclerc	Sauber	Ferrari	32	1'11.802	2.600
18	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber	Ferrari	28	1'11.898	2.696
19	Pierre Gasly	Toro Rosso	Renault	5	1'14.034	4.832
20	Brendon Hartley	Toro Rosso	Renault	2