Practice report

US GP: Hamilton makes strong start, outpaces Rosberg in FP1

Lewis Hamilton set the fastest time in the first practice session for the United States Grand Prix at Austin’s Circuit of the Americas, beating title rival Nico Rosberg by three tenths of a second.

Hamilton lapped in 1m37.428s, 0.315s quicker than points leader Rosberg.

The Mercedes duo were 1.6s clear of the best of the rest, which was Red Bull’s Max Verstappen.

Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen was close behind in fourth, but Sebastian Vettel suffered a troubled session as he lost part of his car’s aerodynamics by running over a kerb, and then his right-side mirror came adrift, causing him to drive back to the pits one-handed.

Story of the session

In bright and breezy conditions, Raikkonen set the first representative lap, a 1m42.738s on the soft tyres.

Rosberg then lapped in 1m40.223s, which was quickly bettered by Hamilton’s 1m39.246s who, like his teammate, ran on supersofts initially. Rosberg improved to 1m39.966s on his second flying lap, but Hamilton blew that out of the water with a 1m38.943s on his second push lap.

Roberg lowered his best time to 1m39.421s as the track evolved. Hamilton unleashed 1m38.701s, as the supersofts lasted well, with Rosberg improving to 1m39.038s, 0.337s down.

Raikkonen improved to 1m40.323s, but was beaten by teammate Vettel on 1m39.988s on soft tyres, who was over a second off the Mercedes pace.

Force India’s Renault-bound Nico Hulkenberg then went fourth on 1m40.113s, splitting the Ferraris.

Williams’ Valtteri Bottas, on soft tyres, leapt to third just after the halfway point.

Fastest times set

Rosberg took P1 with 35 minutes to go, lapping in 1m37.743s on soft tyres – almost a second quicker than Hamilton’s previous best. Hulkenberg and Verstappen took turns in P3, as Hamilton re-emerged on soft tyres, but aborted his first flying lap despite improving on Rosberg’s first sector time.

At his second attempt, Hamilton improved the fastest time to 1m37.428s, which remained the benchmark until the end of the session, three tenths faster than Rosberg.

Raikkonen improved to fourth, just two hundredths off Verstappen. Hulkenberg stayed fifth, ahead of Bottas.

Daniel Ricciardo could only manage seventh for Red Bull, ahead of Vettel, who hit a problem when he was forced to drive one-handed and holding on to his right-side mirror.

Vettel had previously run wide over the kerbs, losing a piece of his underside aerodynamics from the nose section. That caused a brief virtual safety car, as the bodywork required retrieval.

The Toro Rossos of Daniil Kvyat and Carlos Sainz rounded out the top 10.

Williams’ Felipe Massa was 11^th, ahead of Felipe Nasr (Sauber) and Fernando Alonso’s McLaren.

Lively session for Haas

In its first session on home turf, Haas F1 was 14^th and 15^th with Romain Grosjean and Esteban Gutierrez respectively. Grosjean annoyed Verstappen towards the end of the session by racing him. “What is he doing? He’s just staying in front,” complained Verstappen.

Gutierrez and Grosjean both suffered problems at the end of the pitlane in the closing moments of the session. When he had been running, Grosjean’s car also shed aerodynamic parts through the Esses.

Marcus Ericsson’s Sauber became stuck in first gear, forcing him to chug back to the pits. Sauber fixed this so he could go 16^th quickest.

Force India test driver Alfonso Celis was in for Sergio Perez at Force India for this session, and was 17^th fastest. Jenson Button was a lowly 18^th for McLaren, and hit a problem at the end of the session, ahead of Renault’s Kevin Magnussen.

Jordan King took part in his first F1 race weekend session for Manor, and did a fine job – his 1m42.012s good for 20^th position and 1.8s quicker than team regular Esteban Ocon.

Renault’s Jolyon Palmer spun at Turn 18, and also blocked Vettel badly at the end of the Esses, causing the Ferrari driver to lock up. Palmer was 21^st, with Ocon well off the pace in last place.

Bottas, Hulkenberg and Ocon ran the Halo device on their first runs.

Cla	Driver	Chassis	Engine	Laps	Time	Gap	Interval
1	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	Mercedes	25	1'37.428
2	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	Mercedes	27	1'37.743	0.315	0.315
3	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	TAG	28	1'39.379	1.951	1.636
4	Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari	Ferrari	21	1'39.407	1.979	0.028
5	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India	Mercedes	27	1'39.712	2.284	0.305
6	Valtteri Bottas	Williams	Mercedes	30	1'39.776	2.348	0.064
7	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull	TAG	26	1'39.963	2.535	0.187
8	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	Ferrari	15	1'39.988	2.560	0.025
9	Daniil Kvyat	Toro Rosso	Ferrari	16	1'40.131	2.703	0.143
10	Carlos Sainz Jr.	Toro Rosso	Ferrari	26	1'40.140	2.712	0.009
11	Felipe Massa	Williams	Mercedes	27	1'40.191	2.763	0.051
12	Felipe Nasr	Sauber	Ferrari	16	1'40.287	2.859	0.096
13	Fernando Alonso	McLaren	Honda	26	1'40.362	2.934	0.075
14	Romain Grosjean	Haas	Ferrari	15	1'40.826	3.398	0.464
15	Esteban Gutierrez	Haas	Ferrari	15	1'40.970	3.542	0.144
16	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber	Ferrari	17	1'41.170	3.742	0.200
17	Alfonso Celis Jr.	Force India	Mercedes	27	1'41.422	3.994	0.252
18	Jenson Button	McLaren	Honda	21	1'41.663	4.235	0.241
19	Kevin Magnussen	Renault	Renault	22	1'41.942	4.514	0.279
20	Jordan King	Manor	Mercedes	29	1'42.012	4.584	0.070
21	Jolyon Palmer	Renault	Renault	31	1'42.332	4.904	0.320
22	Esteban Ocon	Manor	Mercedes	27	1'43.874	6.446	1.542