Brazilian GP: Hamilton leads Verstappen and Rosberg in FP1

The Briton emerged on top with a time of 1:11.895, set on Pirelli's soft rubber, Verstappen finishing just 0.096s behind him.

Nico Rosberg, who could clinch the title this weekend, was third-quickest, over two tenths behind his teammate.

Daniel Ricciardo in the second Red Bull and Valtteri Bottas in the quickest Williams completed the top five.

Sergio Perez and Nico Hulkenberg wound up sixth and seventh ahead of local hero Felipe Massa, in his final Brazilian GP before he retires.

Ferrari drivers Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen rounded out the top 10, the duo not running with the soft tyres, using just the mediums as they focused on race work.

Like Ferrari, most teams focused on long runs in the second half of the session, as there is a high chance of rain in FP2.

The FP1 session was off to a very slow start, with drivers completing installations laps before returning to the pits for several minutes.

Three cars sported the Halo device today: the Sauber of Marcus Ericsson, Jolyon Palmer's Renault, and the Haas of Romain Grosjean.

It took over 15 minutes for a driver to register a time before the frontrunners started to complete their first timed laps.

Bottas was the early pace-setter in the Williams, as Hamilton initially focused on slow runs, his Mercedes fitted with several sensors on the rear end.

The Briton then upped the pace and moved to first on medium tyres with a 1:13.447, improving to a 1:13.182 on the following lap of his run.

Rosberg, also on mediums, jumped to second with his first run, just 0.030s behind his teammate.

As the session reached the first 30 minutes, Sergey Sirotkin, replacing Kevin Magnussen at Renault, hit trouble, his car shutting down at the final corner.

The Russian used his momentum to reach the pitlane, but had to be pushed by the mechanics to return to the garage.

He would manage just 10 laps and finish at the bottom of the times, behind Charles Leclerc, driving the Haas instead of Esteban Gutierrez. 

Verstappen and minutes later Ricciardo went third quickest, the Australian less than two tenths of a second off Hamilton's pace.

The action stopped as the session neared the halfway point, before Fernando Alonso broke the silence with some 44 minutes left on the clock.

It was Bottas a few minutes later, however, who went quickest in the Williams, the Finn using a new set of soft tyres to outpace Hamilton by 0.028s.

The Williams did not last long on top, as Verstappen went for his first run on softs in the Red Bull, posting a 1:11.991 that put him over a second clear of the rest of the field.

Rosberg's first run on softs produced a time 0.134s slower than Verstappen, putting the German in second ahead of Ricciardo, who also improved thanks to the yellow-marked rubber.

With 30 minutes left, there was drama for Daniil Kvyat as the Russian suffered a puncture to his right rear tyre, needing to crawl back to the pits with a destroyed Pirelli.

Hamilton set a new benchmark with his first run on soft rubber, the Mercedes driver posting a 1:11.895 with some 26 minutes to go.

With three minutes left, Vettel spun off the track during a long run after losing control of his car at Turn 11.

Cla	Driver	Chassis	Engine	Laps	Time	Gap	Interval
1	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	Mercedes	32	1'11.895
2	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	TAG	29	1'11.991	0.096	0.096
3	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	Mercedes	26	1'12.125	0.230	0.134
4	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull	TAG	27	1'12.371	0.476	0.246
5	Valtteri Bottas	Williams	Mercedes	36	1'13.129	1.234	0.758
6	Sergio Perez	Force India	Mercedes	31	1'13.289	1.394	0.160
7	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India	Mercedes	33	1'13.293	1.398	0.004
8	Felipe Massa	Williams	Mercedes	33	1'13.318	1.423	0.025
9	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	Ferrari	24	1'13.567	1.672	0.249
10	Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari	Ferrari	26	1'13.569	1.674	0.002
11	Carlos Sainz Jr.	Toro Rosso	Ferrari	22	1'13.711	1.816	0.142
12	Daniil Kvyat	Toro Rosso	Ferrari	15	1'14.090	2.195	0.379
13	Jenson Button	McLaren	Honda	27	1'14.252	2.357	0.162
14	Fernando Alonso	McLaren	Honda	26	1'14.296	2.401	0.044
15	Romain Grosjean	Haas	Ferrari	25	1'14.507	2.612	0.211
16	Felipe Nasr	Sauber	Ferrari	21	1'14.631	2.736	0.124
17	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber	Ferrari	23	1'14.654	2.759	0.023
18	Esteban Ocon	Manor	Mercedes	30	1'14.827	2.932	0.173
19	Jolyon Palmer	Renault	Renault	32	1'14.908	3.013	0.081
20	Pascal Wehrlein	Manor	Mercedes	32	1'14.948	3.053	0.040
21	Charles Leclerc	Haas	Ferrari	27	1'15.391	3.496	0.443
22	Sergey Sirotkin	Renault	Renault	10	1'15.800	3.905	0.409