United States – Free Practice 1: Verstappen the Fastest, Mercedes Prepares for 2020

Cool temperatures in Texas with 9°C in the air and 15°C on the track at the start of the first free practice session. 2021 is on everyone’s lips, but it’s 2020 being prepared by Pirelli, which is bringing two new types of tires (not marked on the sidewall). A new set of tires for each session is added to those brought by the teams for the weekend.

Trackside, the drivers are rediscovering the circuit that got bumpy over the winter. The climb to the first turn and the straight between turns 11 and 12 have a lot of them. The cars tailgate but there are no errors or wheel lockups. The best time is set by Albon in 1:35.743 ahead of Stroll and Vettel after the first half-hour.

An alert for Leclerc at the start of the session with the throttle pedal mapping that prevented him from driving. The yellow flag was out after thirty minutes due to Nicholas Latifi’s Williams, which went into neutral in the twisty part of the circuit. He was able to restart but had a gearbox problem that forced him to return to the pits. End of the session for the Canadian driver whose car remained with the hood open. After 40 minutes of running, Hülkenberg was called to the pits due to a suspected hydraulic leak on his Renault, which did not prevent him from returning to the track.

Animation on track at mid-session with a spin by Carlos Sainz in the first sector that destroyed the prototype tire set without gravity. Leclerc returned to the track and set an initial timed lap in 1:36.020, placing fifth behind the two Red Bulls, his teammate, and Stroll. Best time held by Albon with 1:35.282.

Thirty minutes before the end of the session, we can note some small scares for Leclerc and Magnussen who make a little excursion into the grass at the end of the first sector. Some laps are canceled for exceeding track limits at the exit of turn 19, which conditions the entry into the straight. On the tire side, the Mercedes are running on medium and prototype. The team is focusing in this first session on long stints and the next season by only running with these two types of tires. Record number of laps for Bottas with 40 laps.

The cool temperatures bring graining, which does not prevent the drivers from improving their times. 20 minutes before the end of the session, the times drop. Verstappen is in the lead with 1:34.057, ahead of Vettel and Albon. The three drivers are within three-tenths of each other. Strong performance from Ricciardo in fifth on soft tires and Stroll in seventh on mediums, 1.5 seconds off the leader. The drivers on prototype tires position themselves at the bottom of the table, except for Leclerc, who is in sixth place.

This leading trio will not change. Great lap by Grosjean, placing him sixth at the end of the session, 1.3 seconds off the best time, along with Magnussen in tenth. The Haas cars are showing good times at home. Hamilton on soft tires takes eighth place in this session.