Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton turned a 1:37.428 to top the timing sheets in Friday morning’s practice session in Austin.
With just four rounds left to go in the championship and all of the teams having shifted a lot of their focus to their 2017 cars, it should come as no surprise that – once again – the Mercedes was far and away the quickest car in Friday morning’s session at Circuit of the Americas.
Both drivers used a set of supersoft tires early on in the session, with Nico Rosberg clocking in just 0.315 seconds behind Hamilton.
Only Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen and Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen could get within 2 seconds of the Mercedes, although it is usually difficult to judge the true pace of the teams ahead of the afternoon session.
A Virtual Safety Car was deployed in the closing minutes of the session when Sebastian Vettel ran wide in Turn 19 and went over the curb, damaging his Ferrari. The German drove back to the pits one-handed as he held his right-side mirror on with his right hand.
Most of the rest of the session was run without incident, although there were spins in Turn 18 for both Renault’s Jolyon Palmer and Toro Rosso’s Daniil Kvyat. Marcus Ericsson also hit trouble when his Sauber got stuck in first gear.
Esteban Ocon (Manor), Daniil Kvyat (Toro Rosso) and Valtteri Bottas (Williams) all tested the Halo, while both Alfonso Celis (Force India) and Jordan King (Manor) got to make FP1 appearances in place of Sergio Perez and Pascal Wehrlein respectively.
Click HERE for full practice results
