The Mercedes drivers were fastest in first Friday free practice at the Circuit of the Americas which was in a wet circuit. Rain was falling over COTA all morning. It gradually stopped but the circuit stayed wet throughout the whole practice.
Lewis Hamilton was fastest in the quite quiet practice. His Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas was 1.3sec slower than him. The Red Bull drivers Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo took the third and fourth places.
FP1 CLASSIFICATION (90/90 MINS)
The Mercedes pair lead the way, with the Red Bulls and Ferraris in tow#USGP ?? #F1 pic.twitter.com/8reAoUczqR
— Formula 1 (@F1) October 19, 2018
Meanwhile, the Ferrari drivers Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen gave the fifth and sixth times. They also had the most laps from the first three teams in the standings. Vettel made 18 laps, Raikkonen had 20. The most laps for the whole session had Sean Gelael – 21. The Indonesian driver was in the cockpit of Brendon Hartley’s Toro Rosso.
The first free practice went through without major incidents. There were some offs, on of which caused a 10-minute stop during the session. Charles Leclerc went off and in a gravel trap but managed to get back on the circuit and continued to the pits. After that, the race control stopped the practice so that the marshals could clean up the gravel Leclerc had left on the asphalt.
Slip-slidin’ into race weekend…@Charles_Leclerc #USGP ?? #F1 pic.twitter.com/TExjY16W6o
— Formula 1 (@F1) October 19, 2018
The track-sweeping truck looking agile through the middle sector ?
Wonder what lap time BMP could end up with? ?#USGP ?? #F1 pic.twitter.com/DWIj0Xgqyq
— Formula 1 (@F1) October 19, 2018
