@LewisHamilton edges @Charles_Leclerc in #MexicanGP FP1. #F1 #F1ESTA

Championship leader Lewis Hamilton edged Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc in the hour and a half opening practice session at the Mexican GP.

Heavy rain on Thursday evening lead to a damp Free Practice 1 at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez with installation laps run on green side-walled intermediate compounds.

Circuit conditions were low-grip, which plagued several drivers but almost immediately in the 90 minute session hinted a potential close three-way battle in Mexico.

Leclerc set the benchmark on a 1:18.849 with Mercedes’ Hamilton and Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen within a tenth of the Monegasque-youngster – although the latter used red-branded softs to hold that spot.

The second Honda-powered RB15 of Alexander Albon and Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas moved to first and second respectively when the second runs on softs began with the former getting below the 1:18’s.

Improvements across the field were halted when Racing Point’s Lance Stroll his the wall at the end of what could have been a personal best lap for the Canadian.

Stroll lost the rear of his Mercedes-powered RP19 entering the tight right-hand final corner before the main straight, and although he managed to continue and return to the pits, the session was red-flagged so the barriers can be fixed.

The session returned to green with 20 minutes remaining and teams wasted little time on improving their times.

Hamilton moved to the top of the time-sheets in Mexican GP opening practice posting the 1:17.327 benchmark, with Verstappen only 0.15 seconds adrift of the Briton in a much fairer comparison between the two front-runners than in the initial runs.

Leclerc remained the only driver using mediums as he pushed his Ferrari to take second with Verstappen making a minor improvement on his later lap but wound up 0.015 seconds off of the former, who in turn was slower than Hamilton.

Albon and Bottas dropped to fourth and fifth respectively, although the latter gained a few hundredths off his personal best effort.

Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel ended the session sixth and 0.861 seconds adrift of Hamilton’s benchmark but on medium rubber like team-mate Leclerc.

Vettel’s session included a full-on traffic jam as he prepared for his flyer after Stroll’s red flag.

The German reported encountering a “mess” in the final sector as the Haas, Renault and Verstappen all took the stadium section very slowly as they maintained their track position at the end of their laps.

Verstappen was frustrated with Vettel as the latter attempted to pass the slow-moving cars, getting in-front of the Renault but could not move ahead of Verstappen who was blocked by the Haas in the final corner.

“What the f*** is Sebastian doing? Everybody is waiting and he tries to go by,” Verstappen yelled to his team over the radio.

McLaren’s Carlos Sainz put on softs to take seventh and finished ahead of the Toro Rosso duo Pierre Gasly and Daniil Kvyat who were eighth and ninth respectively with Alfa Romeo Racing’s Antonio Giovinazzi rounding out the top ten.

Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg was 11th and in-front of Haas F1 Team’s Kevin Magnussen who ended 12th and the other Alfa of Kimi Raikkonen who took 13th.

The second Renault-powered MCL34 McLaren of Lando Norris was 14th and in-front of Renault’s 15th-placed Daniel Ricciardo.

The aforementioned Stroll ended the session in 16th and in-front of home Grand Prix favourite and Racing Point team-mate Sergio Perez who took 17th and Haas F1 Team’s 18th-placed Romain Grosjean.

The two ROKiT Williams Racing FW42’s of George Russell and stand-in Nicholas Latifi brought up the rear.

You can read the full Formula 1 Gran Premio De Mexico Free Practice 1 Results Classification here at the link: https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2019/races/1017/mexico/practice-1.html

You can catch up on the Mexican GP Edition of F1 Newsbites as well as this weekend’s race preview at the following links:

#F1 Newsbites – News making the #MexicanGP weekend. #F1ESTA

#F1 Gran Premio De Mexico 2019 Preview – #MexicanGP #F1ESTA