#USGP FP1: @ValtteriBottas leads @MercedesAMGF1 one-two. #F1

Valtteri Bottas lead from team-mate Lewis Hamilton in a Mercedes one-two in FP1 at the US GP with Red Bull’s Max Verstappen completing the top three.

2019 United States GP winner Bottas edged out team-mate Hamilton by 0.045 seconds, whilst Verstappen was 0.932 seconds off the time-topping Finn in third place.

The opening ten minutes of the session was interrupted by a red-flag caused by Alpine F1 Team’s Fernando Alonso who stopped at turn 12 on his installation tour as a precaution by his Enstone team, but managed to get the Spaniard out on track later in the session.

Hamilton was able to set the early pace for Mercedes on the C4 red side-walled softer compounds, but he was joined at the top of the order by Red Bull’s Sergio Perez, who posted quick laps on the C2 white-marked harder tyres.

Verstappen briefly held top spot on softer rubber with 20 minutes left on the clock, but his effort was comfortably beaten by Hamilton, who went nine-tenths faster moments later.

But it was Bottas who would eventually end up at the top of the pile as he posted the quickest lap of a 1:34.874 on the softs, giving the Finn a two-second buffer to Mercedes team-mate Hamilton.

Whilst Hamilton improved, his effort put him narrowly 0.045 seconds adrift of Bottas’s benchmark, ensuring his team-mate remained quickest when the session ended.

Verstappen improved on his time, but it was a huge 0.932 seconds off of Bottas’ US GP FP1 benchmark as Red Bull struggled to match the Silver Arrows pace.

Bottas will be hit with a five-grid placed penalty for Sunday’s Grand Prix after Mercedes opted to put in a fresh engine ahead of the US race.

Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc recovered from a early spin in-between turns four and five to finish opening practice in fourth and in-front of team-mate Carlos Sainz who rounded out the top five and AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly sixth.

Perez ended FP1 in seventh place as his best effort on the hards wound up being his quickest in FP1 after a stint on the softs – almost one second faster – was invalidated for exceeding track limits at turn nine.

Perez was also involved in an incident with Haas F1 Team’s Mick Schumacher under braking into turn 12, which is currently investigated by the stewards. Both drivers tangled as Perez attempted to pass the Haas on the inside at turn 12 with Perez calling Schumacher an “idiot” and should “have checked his mirrors”.

McLaren’s Lando Norris came eighth as the Briton saw his hopes of improving on the softs fade at the last corner after suffering a lock-up and flat-spotting his tyres.

Alfa Romeo Racing pairing Antonio Giovinazzi and Kimi Raikkonen completed the top ten after both drivers improved on their efforts late in the session.

Williams Racing’s George Russell was 11th, having sat in seventh place at one stage of proceedings and Alpine F1 Team’s Esteban Ocon 12th.

Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll and Sebastian Vettel were 13th and 14th respectively with the aforementioned Alonso 15th.

The other McLaren MCL35M entry of Daniel Ricciardo ended opening practice in 16th, lapping six-tenths slower than team-mate Norris, whilst Williams Racing’s Nicholas Latifi also could not match his team-mate’s pace and finished FP1 in 17th.

Scuderia AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda was 18th and ahead of Haas F1 Team pairing Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin who brought up the rear.

You can see the full Formula 1 Aramco United States Grand Prix 2021 Free Practice 1 Results Classification at the link: https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2021/races/1102/united-states/race-result.html

#Formula1 Aramco #UnitedStatesGP 2021 Preview. #F1 #USGP