Lewis Hamilton tops the timesheets for Free Practice one for the United States Grand Prix, making it a Mercedes AMG PETRONAS Formula 1 Team one-two.
The Briton set a fastest lap time of 1:37.428 to finish the session three tenths ahead of Nico Rosberg at a track where he has previously won three times. Rosberg was unable to post a time faster than Hamilton with the two drivers bouncing off one another with faster times, while behind the Mercedes duo was the first Red Bull Racing of Max Verstappen.
Verstappen finished the session with a time of 1:39.379, a good finish for the Dutchman as earlier in the session he was running in tenth, while behind Verstappen was the first Scuderia Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen who was able to set a time of 1:39.407to finish ahead of the Sahara Force India F1 Team of Nico Hulkenberg. Valtteri Bottas managed to finish in sixth for Williams Martini Racing with a time of 1:39.776.
Unlike team-mate Verstappen, Daniel Ricciardo was unable to set a fastest time to reach the top five, finishing the session in seventh. Behind him by only 0.025 second was the second Ferrari of Sebastian Vettel. Vettel had a moment in the session after debris from his car flew off. His right mirror unit broke leading to the German having to hold his mirror until he returned to the pits.
The first Scuderia Toro Rosso of Daniil Kvyat finished the session in ninth with a time of 1:40.131, only 0.009 seconds ahead of team-mate Carlos Sainz Jr. Just missing out of the top ten was the second Williams of Felipe Massa who finished the session 0.415 seconds behind team-mate. It was a good session for Sauber F1 Team as Felipe Nasr finished in twelfth.
The McLaren Honda Formula 1 Team of Fernando Alonso finished the session thirteenth ahead of the first Haas F1 Team of Romain Grosjean by only 0.464 seconds. Esteban Gutierrez finished 0.144 seconds behind team-mate Grosjean in fifteenth, but unlike the strong performance by Nasr, Marcus Ericsson had to settle for sixteenth ahead of the second Force India of Alfonso Celis Jr.
Celis took the wheel of Sergio Perez’s car for the first practice session, performing well for Force India, managing to set a fastest time of 1:41.422 to finish ahead of Jenson Button in eighteenth. Behind Button was the first Renault Sport Formula 1 of Kevin Magnussen who finished the session with a time of 1:41.942.
Making his Formula 1 debut was Jordan King in the Manor Racing MRT, taking over the duties from Pascal Wehrlein. King performed strong for Manor as he was able to finish the session ahead of the second Renault of Jolyon Palmer and team-mate Esteban Ocon.
A total of four drivers used this session to test the Halo, these drivers included Ocon, Hulkenberg, Kvyat and Bottas, with Williams deciding to paint their Halo device white to match their cars livery, the first team to do so this season.
Circuit of the Americas Free Practice 1 Results
[table id=1613 /]
