Hamilton fastest in 1st practice at US Grand Prix

In a reversal of form from the morning session, championship leader Rosberg lapped almost three tenths quicker than F1 title rival Hamilton during their qualifying simulations on the super-soft Pirelli tyre.

“It’s business as usual this weekend”, he said on his return to the track where a year ago he made a mistake while leading and handed victory and the title to Hamilton, who has a great record in American races.

“Today doesn’t count for anything, it’s just getting to grips with the track”. I still have the belief that anything is possible.

“I was struggling to finish a lap without oversteer but we’ll fix that for tomorrow”. “This weekend we’re starting from scratch and we’re prepared for a good battle”.

“It was generally about how things can be improved”. Kvyat also ran the Halo earlier in the session before having a spin at Turn 18 once it had been removed.

It has emerged Mercedes boss Wolff and non-executive chairman Niki Lauda were not in contact with the team at the track when the protest decision had to be made because their flight was taking off.

After the Ferraris of Vettel and Raikkonen had set the initial pace, with 1m 38.892s and 1m 38.930s on the supersoft Pirelli tyres, Verstappen took over with 1m 38.541s on soft rubber before Rosberg went ahead on the same tyre with 1m 38.082s.

Kevin Magnussen and Felipe Nasr also impressed, lapping 12th and 13th quickest for Renault and Sauber respectively.

Two weeks after criticism of his behavior during the drivers’ news conference in Japan sparked a feud with some media, the Mercedes driver welcomed all questions at the U.S. The mirror came loose when he ran wide exiting the penultimate corner and a piece of bodywork flew up from lower down on the auto and took the mirror out. Gutierrez then ran over the debris moments later.

If he wins again, Hamilton would equal seven-time champion German Michael Schumacher’s record of five United States victories and record his 50th career Grand Prix win.

Nico Rosberg ended the opening day of the US GP fastest of all as Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo split the championship leader and Lewis Hamilton on the Practice Two timesheet.

“The running of the vehicle was different between P1 and P2 because of the temperature; it was very cold when we ran this morning”, said the German.

Nico Hulkenberg and Sergio Perez went sixth and seventh fastest respectively, while Williams duo Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa finished 14th and 16th.