Practice report
Formula 1 United States GP
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.
Charles Bradley
Edited: Oct 21, 2016, 6:16 PM
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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 11th, ahead of Felipe Nasr (Sauber) and Fernando Alonso’s McLaren.
Lively session for Haas
In its first session on home turf, Haas F1 was 14th and 15th 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 16th quickest.
Force India test driver Alfonso Celis was in for Sergio Perez at Force India for this session, and was 17th fastest. Jenson Button was a lowly 18th 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 20th 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 21st, with Ocon well off the pace in last place.
Bottas, Hulkenberg and Ocon ran the Halo device on their first runs.
ClaDriverChassisEngineLapsTimeGapInterval 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
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