United States Grand Prix – Lewis Hamilton gave his potentially championship-winning weekend a strong start by topping free practice one.
Following a wet start to opening practice, track conditions gradually improved throughout the session, albeit with several drivers making errors on the damp parts of the circuit.
Mercedes’ Hamilton emerged as the fastest driver at the Circuit of the Americas, setting a 1:36.335 to finish over half-a-second ahead of championship rival, Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel.
The second Mercedes of Valtteri Bottas finished the 90-minute session in third, ahead of Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, who had topped the times during the intermediate-tyre period.
With the top four setting times on the super soft tyres, McLaren’s Stoffel Vandoorne was the fastest ultra soft tyre runner, posting the fifth fastest time, one second off the pace. Sixth-place Felipe Massa (Williams) also ran the fastest available tyre.
Kimi Raikkonen (Ferrari), Esteban Ocon, Sergio Perez (both Force India) and Carlos Sainz (Renault) completed the top ten.
Debutant Brendon Hartley finished his first Formula One session in fourteenth place, three places and over one second faster than the second Toro Rosso of Sean Gelael, who was given a free practice outing in place of Daniil Kvyat.
Fernando Alonso’s McLaren suffered from a hydraulic leak early on in the session and was unable to set a competitive lap time.
To view the full results of the session, click here.
