Verstappen nips Vettel in opening USGP practice

Max Verstappen
Max Verstappen

While the Mercedes team was straddled with testing the 2020 slow as a dog Pirelli tires and not competitive laps in, Max Verstappen topped opening practice for the USGP at COTA with a time of 1m34.057s in his Red Bull Honda.

2nd quick was Sebastian Vettel's Ferrari 0.169s back while Verstappen's Red Bull teammate Alex Albon was third quick 0.259s back.

Pierre Gasly and Daniel Ricciardo rounded out the top-5 for Toro Rosso and Renault.

Hamilton finally bolted on a set of 2019 tires and went 8th quick, 1.3s behind.

The temperatures were quite cold for this session (fans bring a jacket Saturday morning!) and the drivers were complaining about the bumps, especially on the pit straight heading toward Turn 1.

Slowest was Canadian F2 driver Nicholas Latifi in the Williams, 7-seconds off the pace, but he only completed 7 laps after a gearbox issue put an end to his day.

Practice 1 Results

POS NO DRIVER CAR TIME GAP LAPS
1 33 Max Verstappen Red Bull Racing Honda 1:34.057 +0.000s 26
2 5 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 1:34.226 +0.169s 30
3 23 Alexander Albon Red Bull Racing Honda 1:34.316 +0.259s 28
4 10 Pierre Gasly Scuderia Toro Rosso Honda 1:35.008 +0.951s 32
5 3 Daniel Ricciardo Renault 1:35.263 +1.206s 29
6 8 Romain Grosjean Haas Ferrari 1:35.356 +1.299s 24
7 16 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:35.380 +1.323s 23
8 44 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:35.439 +1.382s 32
9 18 Lance Stroll Racing Point Bwt Mercedes 1:35.586 +1.529s 31
10 20 Kevin Magnussen Haas Ferrari 1:35.659 +1.602s 23
11 26 Daniil Kvyat Scuderia Toro Rosso Honda 1:35.661 +1.604s 31
12 55 Carlos Sainz McLaren Renault 1:35.723 +1.666s 26
13 7 Kimi Raikkonen Alfa Romeo Racing Ferrari 1:35.854 +1.797s 22
14 11 Sergio Perez Racing Point Bwt Mercedes 1:35.971 +1.914s 29
15 99 Antonio Giovinazzi Alfa Romeo Racing Ferrari 1:36.037 +1.980s 26
16 27 Nico Hulkenberg Renault 1:36.124 +2.067s 24
17 77 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 1:36.159 +2.102s 40
18 4 Lando Norris McLaren Renault 1:36.263 +2.206s 23
19 88 Robert Kubica Williams Mercedes 1:37.948 +3.891s 28
20 40 Nicholas Latifi Williams Mercedes 1:41.112 +7.055s 7