Source: Mercedes-Benz Archive

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Mercedes set pace in wet FP1 with one-two on COTA! - FP1 Summary & Results

Mercedes set pace in wet FP1 with one-two on COTA! - FP1 Summary & Results

19-10-2018 17:30
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Nicolás Quarles van Ufford

Mercedes have set the pace early-on at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin as they dominated FP1, with Lewis Hamilton leading a Mercedes one-two as Ferrari couldn't get higher than P5.

Hamilton, of course, can win his fifth championship this weekend if he finishes two places ahead of Sebastian Vettel in the race, and if FP1 is anything to go by, he'll be more than capable of doing that.

The Brit was 1.3 seconds quicker than anybody else on the grid, with Red Bull's Max Verstappen only four-hundredths of a second slower than second-placed Bottas.

Ferrari were two seconds off the pace on the very wet Circuit of the Americas, with Vettel finishing behind both Red Bulls and both Mercedes cars in P5.

The session started with a lot of silence. No time was set until 26 minutes into the session, when Daniel Ricciardo finally kicked things off. He went toe to toe with Verstappen as they kept improving on each other's times but eventually the Dutchman proved to be quicker, as the Aussie had to settle for fourth place.

The track did start drying up, though, as conditions started improving, and with that, the times also started improving.

The two Formula 2 drivers that were active in FP1, Lando Norris and Sean Gelael, finished P12 and P20 respectively, with the latter not really looking like he belonged on the grid. He was driving in Brendon Hartley's Toro Rosso, but he was almost a second and a half slower than the other Toro Rosso of Pierre Gasly, who was in P13.

Related: Gasly & Hartley get grid penalties in USA!

Norris did well as he was just under two tenths off of Fernando Alonso, who was in P10, as the British teenager prepares to take over one of the McLarens in 2019 next to Carlos Sainz.

There was supposed to be another test driver in action today, but Nicholas Latifi was eventually not active in Esteban Ocon's Force India, with the Frenchman wanting to drive himself to get some reps at the Circuit of the Americas. He was only in P17 but was mostly doing long-runs.

The wet conditions are expected to continue on Friday and Saturday, but Sunday's race should be dry, as Hamilton and Mercedes will be looking to wrap things up in terms of the championship fight.