Hamilton three tenths quicker than Rosberg, with Mercedes dominant in P1; Verstappen third for Red Bull; Jordan King impresses on Manor debut
Monday 24 October 2016 14:17, UK
Lewis Hamilton outpaced Nico Rosberg by 0.3s in Practice One in Austin as he made the ideal start to a critical weekend in the title race at the US GP.
For the first time since the August summer break, Hamilton topped the P1 timesheet with his advantage over championship leader Rosberg three tenths of a second on both the soft and supersoft tyre.
Hamilton trails Rosberg by 33 points with four races to go and realistically needs to end a five-race victory drought this weekend to reignite his championship push. The Briton has won on three of F1's previous four visits to the Circuit of the Americas, and four times in the USA overall.
Mercedes were in a class of their own in the opening session, with third-fastest Max Verstappen a massive 1.9 seconds back on Hamilton.
"It was a bit reminiscent of early 2014 with Mercedes so out front," said Sky F1's Martin Brundle.
However, Red Bull only used the slower medium tyre in the session and both them and Ferrari are likely to close the gap as the weekend progresses.
Kimi Raikkonen was the lead Ferrari in fourth, with Renault-bound Nico Hulkenberg fifth for Force India ahead of Williams' Valtteri Bottas.
Eighth place went to Sebastian Vettel, who had to spend part of one lap clutching on to his Ferrari's right wing mirror after a piece of carbon fibre from his own car flew off and broke it when he ran wide over a kerb.
Meanwhile, Britain's Jordan King made his F1 practice debut with Manor, standing in for Pascal Wehrlein, and finished ahead of Esteban Ocon after a respectable maiden performance.
The 22-year-old GP2 race winner is thought to be in contention for one of the seats at the team next season and Friday's P1 session was his first chance to drive the MRT05 outside of a test session.
"When you get a chance you've got to grab it and you've got to do a good job," said Johnny Herbert on King's chances of making the 2017 grid. "I don't know if there was a problem with Esteban's car in that session, but they were nip-and-tuck throughout most of that session. He's got a chance."
United States GP Practice One timesheet
1. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, 1:37.428
2. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes, + 0.315
3. Max Verstappen, Red Bull, + 1.951
4. Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari, + 1.979
5. Nico Hulkenberg, Force India, + 2.284
6. Valtteri Bottas, Williams, + 2.348
7. Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull, + 2.535
8. Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari, + 2.560
9. Daniil Kvyat, Toro Rosso, + 2.703
10. Carlos Sainz, Toro Rosso, + 2.712
11. Felipe Massa, Williams, + 2.763
12. Felipe Nasr, Sauber, + 2.859
13. Fernando Alonso, McLaren, + 2.934
14. Romain Grosjean, Haas, + 3.398
15. Esteban Gutierrez, Haas, + 3.542
16. Marcus Ericsson, Sauber, + 3.742
17. Alfonso Celis, Force India, + 3.994
18. Jenson Button, McLaren, + 4.235
19. Kevin Magnussen, Renault, + 4.514
20. Jordan King, Manor, + 4.584
21. Jolyon Palmer, Renault, + 4.904
22. Esteban Ocon, Manor, + 6.446
