Hamilton pips Vettel in opening Mexican GP practice

Lewis Hamilton fastest in the superior Aldo Costa Mercedes

Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton led the way in Friday's opening 'track cleaning' practice for the Formula 1 Gran Premio de Mexico 2016, as low temperatures and low grip dominated proceedings around the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez. Hamilton's best time – set on the medium Pirelli tires – was just 0.079s better than Sebastian Vettel's, the Ferrari driver's recorded on the soft-compound rubber, i.e. the Ferrari is really out to lunch compared to the Aldo Costa designed Mercedes.

Kimi Raikkonen consolidated a strong start to the weekend for the Scuderia in third, also on the soft tires, while Force India's Sergio Perez and Nico Hulkenberg used the supersofts to go fourth and fifth respectively.

Valtteri Bottas was sixth for Williams on softs, ahead of championship leader Nico Rosberg, who clocked his best lap on the mediums. Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo, Williams' Felipe Massa and Toro Rosso's Daniil Kvyat – all on softs – completed the top ten.

The main drama of the session came 33 minutes in when Felipe Nasr – trialling the halo cockpit protection device – rode a curb heavily and the right front wing of his Sauber subsequently disintegrated, bringing out the red flags for just under ten minutes as marshals cleared the debris.

There were also problems for Max Verstappen, with overheating brakes causing damage to electrical components on his Red Bull.

Results