Posted on 28th October 2016
In the first practice session in Mexico, Lewis Hamilton topped the timesheets ahead of the Ferrari drivers of Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen in a session that saw Felipe Nasr suffering massive damage to his front wing alongside the track struggling to be rubbed in by all the drivers.
With just under an hour left of the session, the red flag brought the session to a half after Sauber driver Felipe Nasr suffered damage to his front wing on the track. Nasr sustained this damage after bouncing off a kerb which then caused the front wing to snap and shatter into pieces.
Luckily enough Nasr was able to get back into the pitlane to get the front wing repaired and able to continue running in the session while the marshals cleared the track of debris.
In the last forty minutes of the session, Max Verstappen did not run in the session due to problems with overheating in his brakes that needed further investigation by the Red Bull Racing Team.
Towards the end of the session, Sergio Perez's engineer informed him via his team radio that rain is heading towards the circuit and could spice things up going into FP2.
But it was Lewis Hamilton who was fastest with a lap time of 1:20.914 ahead of Sebastian Vettel in second place who was 0.079 seconds behind him and ahead of Kimi Raikkonen in third place who was 0.158 seconds behind Hamilton.
Sergio Perez finished the session in fourth place ahead of Nico Hulkenberg in fifth place, Valtteri Bottas in sixth place, Nico Rosberg in seventh place, Daniel Ricciardo in eighth place, Felipe Massa in ninth place and Daniil Kvyat who rounded off the top ten finishers.
Romain Grosjean ended the session in eleventh place ahead of Carlos Sainz Jr in twelfth place, Marcus Ericsson in thirteenth place, Max Verstappen in fourteenth place and Esteban Gutierrez in fifteenth place.
As we head into the latter stages of the grid, Fernando Alonso ended the session in sixteenth place ahead of Felipe Nasr in seventeenth place, Jenson Button in eighteenth place, Kevin Magnussen in nineteenth place, Esteban Ocon in twentieth place and Jolyon Palmer in twenty-first place and Pascal Wehrlein in twenty-second place.
The classification of FP1 for the Mexican GP is as follows:-
1. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, 1.20.914
2. Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari, 0.079s
3. Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari, 0.158s
4. Sergio Perez, Force India-Mercedes, 0.286s
5. Nico Hulkenberg, Force India-Mercedes, 0.495s
6. Valtteri Bottas, Williams-Mercedes, 0.533s
7. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes, 0.759s
8. Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull-TAG Heuer, 0.813s
9. Felipe Massa, Williams-Mercedes, 0.922s
10. Daniil Kvyat, Toro Rosso, 1.301s
11. Romain Grosjean, Haas Ferrari, 1.586s
12. Carlos Sainz Jr, Toro Rosso, 1.649s
13. Marcus Ericsson, Sauber-Ferrari, 1.809s
14. Max Verstappen, Red-Bull-TAG Heuer, 1.963s
15. Esteban Gutierrez, Haas Ferrari, 1.996s
16. Fernando Alonso, McLaren-Honda, 2.175s
17. Felipe Nasr, Sauber-Ferrari, 2.175s
18. Jenson Button, McLaren-Honda, 2.428s
19. Kevin Magnussen, Renault, 2.642s
20. Esteban Ocon, MRT Racing, 3.169s
21. Jolyon Palmer, Renault, 3.183s
22. Pascal Wehrlein, MRT Racing, 3.436s
Sarah Jones- @jonesy_laaa
