Lewis Hamilton leads the way in FP1 in Brazil

Lewis Hamilton leads the way in FP1 in Brazil

In the first practice session at the Interlagos circuit yesterday, Lewis Hamilton topped the timesheets ahead of Nico Rosberg and Max Verstappen in a session that saw the drivers perfecting their set ups and seeing where they need to improve before FP2 and FP3.
During FP1, Sergey Sirotkin managed just 10 laps for Renault before encountering a technical issue after 28 minutes. Sirotkin was forced to park his car at the entry of the pitlane from where he was collected by a team of mechanics, but Renault was unable to get him back out on track.

With three minutes remaining Sebastian Vettel finished the session in ignominious fashion by spinning off at Mergulho on a set of fresh medium tyres. This was then followed by Toro Rosso drivers of Carlos Sainz Jr and Daniil Kvyat, with Kvyat suffering a right-rear puncture after an hour that brought an end to his session.

But it was Lewis Hamilton who was fastest with a lap time of 1:11.895 ahead of Max Verstappen in second place who was 0.096 seconds behind him and ahead of Nico Rosberg in third place who was 0.230 seconds behind Hamilton

Daniel Ricciardo finished the session in fourth place ahead of Valtteri Bottas in fifth place, Sergio Perez in sixth place, Nico Hulkenberg in seventh place, Felipe Massa in eighth place, Sebastian Vettel in ninth place and Kimi Raikkonen who rounded off the top ten finishers.

Carlos Sainz Jr ended the session in eleventh place ahead of Daniil Kvyat in twelfth place, Jenson Button in thirteenth place, Fernando Alonso in fourteenth place and Romain Grosjean in fifteenth place.

As we head into the latter stages of the grid, Felipe Nasr ended the session in sixteenth place ahead of Marcus Ericsson in seventeenth place, Esteban Ocon in eighteenth place, Jolyon Palmer in nineteenth place, Pascal Wehrlein in twentieth place, Charles Leclerc in twenty-first place and Sergey Sirotkin in twenty-second place.

The classification of FP1 for the Brazilian GP is as follows:-

1. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, 1.11.895
2. Max Verstappen, Red-Bull-TAG Heuer, 0.096s
3. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes, 0.230s
4. Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull-TAG Heuer, 0.476s
5. Valtteri Bottas, Williams-Mercedes, 1.234s
6. Sergio Perez, Force India-Mercedes, 1.394s
7. Nico Hulkenberg, Force India-Mercedes, 1.398s
8. Felipe Massa, Williams-Mercedes, 1.423s
9. Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari, 1.672s
10. Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari, 1.674s
11. Carlos Sainz Jr, Toro Rosso, 1.816s
12. Daniil Kvyat, Toro Rosso, 2.195s
13. Jenson Button, McLaren-Honda, 2.357s
14. Fernando Alonso, McLaren-Honda, 2.401s
15. Romain Grosjean, Haas Ferrari, 2.612s
16. Felipe Nasr, Sauber-Ferrari, 2.736s
17. Marcus Ericsson, Sauber-Ferrari, 2.759s
18. Esteban Ocon, MRT Racing, 2.932s
19. Jolyon Palmer, Renault, 3.013s
20. Pascal Wehrlein, MRT Racing, 3.053s
21. Charles Leclerc, Haas Ferrari, 3.496s
22. Sergey Sirotkin, Renault, 3.905s

Sarah Jones- @jonesy_laaa