Mexican GP practice: Lewis Hamilton fastest ahead of Ferraris

Lewis Hamilton set the pace in the first practice session ahead of Formula 1's Mexican Grand Prix.

After setting the pace early on with a lap of 1m21.936s, last weekend's US Grand Prix winner continued to steadily improve around the dusty, low-grip track in the heart of Mexico City, and with temperatures on the low side, starting out at a chilly 12 degrees.

The reigning champion eventually put together a 1m20.914s on the medium-compound tyre, a time 0.169s quicker than the best across all of practice a year ago on F1's return to Mexico.

Hamilton was not quickest in any of the three sectors, however, as Sebastian Vettel in his Ferrari was fastest in the first and second, with home hero Sergio Perez the best in the final part of the track.

Vettel's leading sector times came on different laps, though, resulting in him finishing second to Hamilton by 0.079s on a soft-tyre run.

After sitting out the early part of the session Kimi Raikkonen was third quickest on softs, finishing 0.158s adrift, with Perez fourth and almost three tenths of a second down on super-softs.

Behind Nico Hulkenberg and Williams's Valtteri Bottas both around half a second off the pace, on super-soft and soft tyres respectively, Rosberg found himself down in seventh, 0.759s down on medium tyres.

Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo and Felipe Massa in his Williams were the only other drivers to finish within a second of Hamilton in eighth and ninth, with Daniil Kvyat completing the top 10, but 1.3s back.

Ricciardo's team-mate Max Verstappen was only 14th, with his morning cut short by a brake fire when he returned to the pits just past the midway point of the 90-minutes.

The session was also red-flagged 32 minutes in when the front wing of Felipe Nasr's Sauber exploded, showering the track with carbon fibre shards.

Nasr had run wide across the kerbs coming out of the Esses section of the circuit, which dislodged the wing before parts of it then broke in spectacular fashion.

The Brazilian was able to return to the track late on, elevating himself up to 17th, just over two seconds back.

FP1 TIMES

Pos	Driver	Car	Gap	Laps
1	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1m20.914s	34
2	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	0.079s	23
3	Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari	0.158s	19
4	Sergio Perez	Force India/Mercedes	0.286s	23
5	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India/Mercedes	0.495s	23
6	Valtteri Bottas	Williams/Mercedes	0.533s	34
7	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	0.759s	32
8	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull/Renault	0.813s	27
9	Felipe Massa	Williams/Mercedes	0.922s	31
10	Daniil Kvyat	Toro Rosso/Ferrari	1.301s	29
11	Romain Grosjean	Haas/Ferrari	1.586s	21
12	Carlos Sainz	Toro Rosso/Ferrari	1.649s	32
13	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber/Ferrari	1.809s	17
14	Max Verstappen	Red Bull/Renault	1.963s	10
15	Esteban Gutierrez	Haas/Ferrari	1.996s	23
16	Fernando Alonso	McLaren/Honda	2.175s	25
17	Felipe Nasr	Sauber/Ferrari	2.175s	12
18	Jenson Button	McLaren/Honda	2.428s	24
19	Kevin Magnussen	Renault	2.642s	32
20	Esteban Ocon	Manor/Mercedes	3.169s	30
21	Jolyon Palmer	Renault	3.183s	35
22	Pascal Wehrlein	Manor/Mercedes	3.436s	28

Read the full story at Formula 1 news - Autosport