Bottas heads up Mercedes 1-2 in opening Mexican GP practice
Valtteri Bottas led Mercedes to a one-two finish in opening Formula 1 practice for the Mexican Grand Prix on Friday morning at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, outpacing teammate Lewis Hamilton by four-tenths of a second.
Bottas made the most of his track time in a busy FP1 session in Mexico City, turning in a fastest lap time of 1:17.824 to finish clear of Hamilton and Red Bull driver Max Verstappen as Mercedes stamped its authority on proceedings early on.
Valtteri Bottas led Mercedes to a one-two finish in opening Formula 1 practice for the Mexican Grand Prix on Friday morning at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, outpacing teammate Lewis Hamilton by four-tenths of a second.
Bottas made the most of his track time in a busy FP1 session in Mexico City, turning in a fastest lap time of 1:17.824 to finish clear of Hamilton and Red Bull driver Max Verstappen as Mercedes stamped its authority on proceedings early on.
The high altitude levels in Mexico prompted drivers to run with a high-downforce setup despite the fast nature of the circuit, potentially putting Mercedes' advantage at risk due to the form Ferrari and Red Bull have shown at other high-downforce tracks so far this season.
Mercedes managed to stave off the threat from its rivals by sweeping to a one-two finish in the opening session regardless, with Verstappen and teammate Daniel Ricciardo finishing over half a second back from Bottas at the front.
Ferrari title contender Sebastian Vettel finished seven-tenths of a second slower than Bottas to end the session fifth-fastest ahead of teammate Kimi Raikkonen in P6, although neither driver nor the Red Bull racers completed a lap on the ultra-soft tyre unlike the Mercedes duo at the front.
Sergio Perez led Force India's charge en route to P7, but the session was not all good for the team as Alfonso Celis Jr. crashed out at the final corner during his final FP1 appearance of the year, bringing out a red flag and damaging the car that will be handed back to Esteban Ocon for the remainder of the weekend.
Celis was not the only driver to hit trouble in FP1 as Verstappen, Brendon Hartley and Stoffel Vandoorne were all forced to end their sessions early due to various problems, with the last of the trio requiring a new engine.
Fernando Alonso was able to save some face for McLaren-Honda by finishing the session eighth-fastest, beating Felipe Massa and Nico Hulkenberg who rounded out the top 10 for Williams and Renault respectively.
