F1-EL1: Lewis Hamilton gets off to a good start in Austin

As usual, the Mercedes W05 Hybrid Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg dominated the first free practice session held at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas. However, we had to wait until the start of the last half hour to see the Silver Arrows come to the forefront. It's here McLaren by Jenson Button, ultimately third in the session, who held firm at the top of the timesheet for a long time, but who ultimately had to lose by 378 thousandths. Hamilton will remain as the only driver to have broken the 1'40 lap barrier in these EL1s, setting a benchmark time of 1'39"941. Rosberg fails at 292 thousandths.

Daniil Kvyat (Toro Rosso) ranks 4th in front of another rookie, the Dane Kevin Magnussen (McLaren). Fernando Alonso (Ferrari) takes 6th place ahead of the one who should replace him within the Italian team in 2015, the German Sebastian Vettel. Felipe Nasr, who replaced the Finn Valtteri Bottas for this session at Williams, follows in 8th position and takes in his wheel Nico Hulkenberg (Force India) and Max Verstappen (Rosso Bull). Romain Grosjean (Lotus) which debuted a new, more “conventional” snout than its E22 brings up the rear in 18th position, just behind Daniel Ricciardo, visibly the victim of a mechanical problem on his Red Bull, the flat bottom of which was dismantled during the session.

Note that the FIA ​​tested the virtual Safety-Car system in the final seconds of these FP1, with drivers having to respect a lap time limit. The drivers will return to the track at 20 p.m. French time, for free practice 2, to be followed live on AUTOhebdo.fr.