F1
Hamilton and Vettel in a handkerchief in Mexico
At the end of a first fluid free practice session, neutralized after a restart following the scrapping of the front wing of Felipe Nasr's Sauber, which required the deployment of the red flag to clean up the numerous debris scattered on the track, Lewis Hamilton set the pace on the route Hermanos Rodriguez.
Road on medium tires, and in rather cool conditions (rain even showing up in small bursts at the end of the session) la Mercedes W07 Hybrid n°44 completed its best lap in 1'20″914, 79 thousandths ahead of Ferrari SF16-H Sebastian Vettel, time signed on soft tires.
The Scuderia Ferrari driver precedes his teammate Kimi Räikkönen, third at 158 thousandths, but who has regularly complained of understeer on his car during these first runs. Many riders have seen significant graining develop on the left front tire of their bike, making it difficult to operate.
In front of his home crowd, Sergio Pérez climbed into fourth position with his Force India, but the Mexican driver achieved his benchmark time on the super-soft rubber, thus qualifying the performance of the local idol.
Nico Hulkenberg places the second VJM09 in fifth position ahead of the Williams de Valtteri Bottas, one of the fastest single-seaters in a straight line. Championship leader Nico Rosberg only ranks seventh ahead of first Red Bull de Daniel Ricciardo.
Felipe Massa (Williams) and Daniil Kvyat (Toro Rosso) complete the top 10 ahead the first Haas VF16 of Romain Grosjean. Max Verstappen is absent from the first positions, but the Dutch driver encountered a brake problem, requiring the use of the fire extinguisher in the pit lane by the Red Bull mechanics following the start of a fire.
Is @Max33Verstappen's # FP1 over? Overheating rear brakes have @redbullracing mechanics scrambling #MexicoGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/mEw0Ml7cRO
— Formula 1 (@F1) October 28, 2016
Fernando Alonso is the best representative McLaren in 16th position behind Esteban Gutiérrez (Haas), while Kevin Magnussen takes 19th place with the best Renault RS16. The Dane is ahead French Esteban Ocon (Manor), 20th ahead of Jolyon Palmer (Renault) and Pascal Wehrlein (Manor) who brings up the rear.
The second free practice session will begin at 21 p.m. French time.
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