Longhorns, Cowboy hats, and American football get ups can only mean one thing. F1 has once again touched down in America and has headed to the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas for what should be an interesting round in the championship at the US Grand Prix.
Mercedes could clinch the Constructors championship here this weekend for the fourth time in a row if they outscore Ferrari by 17 points. While there is an outside chance Lewis Hamilton could be crowned the 2017 Drivers Championship this weekend if he wins the race and his championship rival Sebastian Vettel finishes no higher than sixth. Free Practice on Friday gave everyone the first opportunity to see if this indeed would be a championship winning weekend for Hamilton and Mercedes.
How Hamilton can become the 2017 Drivers championship this weekend.
. If Hamilton wins and Vettel finishes sixth or lower, he will be champion.
. If Hamilton finishes second and Vettel finishes ninth or lower, as long as Bottas is not the driver to win the race, he will be champion.
. If Hamilton finishes third or lower the championship battle moves on to Mexico.
In Free Practice One Hamilton made the ideal start to his championship clinching bid this weekend by topping the timesheets during a wet-dry session. The Mercedes driver finished the session with a time of 1:36.335 on the supersoft tyre, a time that was more than half a second quicker than his championship rival Vettel in his Ferrari. The damp start to the weekend was not the greatest preparation for the teams, who had to start the session on the intermediate tyres. Fortunately, the track dried out relatively quickly and Vettel was able to switch onto the slick tyres just before that halfway point of the session.
Hamilton’s Mercedes team mate, Valtteri Bottas, was third for the team just over six tenths of a second down on the fastest time in FP1. While Max Verstappen thanked Red Bull for his contract extension by setting the fourth fastest time of the session, albeit over a second behind Hamilton’s blistering time.
It wasn’t all good news for the top teams though, as several drivers struggled in the conditions. At Ferrari, Kimi Raikkonen had a hard time in the car and finished over seven tenths down on the fastest time Vettel set, finishing the session in seventh place. While Red Bull had problems with a spin for Daniel Ricciardo during the session. The Australian failed to set a comitative dry-tyre time and as a result languished in a lowly 16th position.
While the session may not have gone the way some teams would have wanted, for others it provided a unique opportunity to rise up the timesheets. An opportunity Stoffel Vandoorne and McLaren capitalised on, as the young Belgian driver set the fifth fastest time of the session ahead of Felipe Massa in sixth in his Williams.
The Force India’s of Esteban Ocon and Sergio Perez impressed once again with another double top ten finish, setting the eighth and ninth fastest times respectively. While it was the perfect debut for Carlos Sainz at Renault. The Spaniard, who has been drafted in for the last four races to replace underperforming Brit Jolyon Palmer, set the tenth fastest time of the session. Finishing ahead of his new team mate Nico Hulkenberg in 13th.
Sainz was not the only one to impress on his debut, as Bredon Hartley performed well in his Toro Rosso to set the 14th fastest time of the session. The New Zealand races has not driven in a competitive single seater car in five years, having been a member of the LMP1 Porsche team for the last few seasons. He finished ahead of F2 hopeful Sean Gelael, who was standing in for Daniil Kvyat for the first session.
Gelael wasn’t the only F2 driver to make an appearance in FP1, as recently crowned F2 champion Charles Leclerc made his debut at Sauber. The Monegasque driver finished with the slowest time of the session in 19th place. This was due to Fernando Alonso failing to set a time in his McLaren following a hydraulic leak on his McLaren.
If the Spaniard picks up a penalty he will join Hartley, Hulkenberg, Vandoorne, and Verstappen who also have grid penalties due to engine related issues.
Free Practice Two was a similar story, with Hamilton maintaining his perfect start to the weekend by topping the session once again. Hamilton’s faultless second session was once again in contrast to Vettel’s, who only set the third fastest time of the session after he faltered out on track and suffered what looked to be yet more reliability concerns.
The German driver was already half a second down on Hamilton in the qualifying simulations before suffering a scare thanks to a high speed spin off the track at the penultimate corner. He had to limp back to the pits where the team checked over his car. After a lengthy break from track action Vettel returned only to have to make his way back to the pits again thanks to a suspension issue. The lack of running for the Ferrari driver will hurt him going into Qualifying and the Race due to a lack of available data for him to analyse. Yet again it’s a reliability problem Ferrari could really have dome without considering what is riding on this weekend.
“It’s Friday, you want to run as much as possible. That didn’t work out for me today,” said Vettel. “It’s important to feel comfortable. Obviously we’re missing some laps but I’m sure with a couple of successive laps tomorrow it should be better.”
The team announced following the session that they would be changing the chassis on Vettel’s car as a precaution for the rest of the weekend.
With Vettel spending much of the session in the garage it was down to the Red Bull of Verstappen to challenge Hamilton in FP2. The Dutchman finished the session just under four tenths behind the leading silver arrow of Hamilton. Though Red Bull will be more interested in the fact Verstappen was able to outpace Hamilton on the soft tyre runs during the session. However with Verstappen due to take a grid penalty it looks like Red Bull will not be able to capitalise on this advantage this weekend.
Bottas once again finished the session over six tenths behind Hamilton’s fastest time in fourth, as the Finn struggles to find the same pace in the car as his team mate. On average Bottas has been outqualified by Hamilton by half a second since summer break, as the second Mercedes driver has struggled for pace since the Belgian Grand Prix.
Ricciardo made up for his spin this morning and finished the session in fifth place just ahead of the second Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen. While Alonso’s hydraulic leak was fixed allowing the Spanish driver to set a lap time for the first time this weekend. He managed to set the seventh fastest time of the session ahead of former Ferrari team mate Massa, who was eighth in his Williams car. Once again the Force India’s filled the last top ten positions, with Perez faster than Ocon this time.
Sainz was just outside the top ten in 11th, and critically once again ahead of his new team mate Hulkenberg in 12th. Sainz will be hoping he can carry on this good form and outqualify Hulkenberg, something his predecessor Palmer never managed.
With a championship up for grabs this weekend and things heating up between team mates for pride and points, tomorrows qualifying session could prove to be one of the most critical of the season.
United States GP Practice One Timesheet
1) Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes: 1:36.335
2) Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari: +0.593
3) Valtteri Bottas, Mercedes: +0.644
4) Max Verstappen, Red Bull: +1.004
5) Stoffel Vandoorne, McLaren: +1.017
6) Felipe Massa, Williams: +1.235
7) Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari: +1.263
8) Esteban Ocon, Force India: +1.473
9) Sergio Perez, Force India: +1.526
10) Carlos Sainz, Renault: +1.758
11) Kevin Magnussen, Haas: +2.073
12) Lance Stroll, Williams: +2.199
13) Nico Hulkenberg, Renault: +2.569
14) Brendon Hartley, Toro Rosso: +2.932
15) Romain Grosjean, Haas: +3.001
16) Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull: +3.031
17) Sean Gelael, Toro Rosso: +4.071
18) Marcus Ericsson, Sauber: +4.113
19) Charles Leclerc, Sauber: +4.493
20) Fernando Alonso, McLaren: No time set
United States GP Practice Two Timesheet
1) Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes: 1:34.688
2) Max Verstappen, Red Bull: + 0.397
3) Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari: + 0.524
4) Valtteri Bottas, Mercedes: + 0.611
5) Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull: + 0.795
6) Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari: + 0.846
7) Fernando Alonso, McLaren: + 1.636
8) Felipe Massa, Williams: + 1.792
9) Sergio Perez, Force India: + 1.813
10) Esteban Ocon, Force India: + 1.822
11) Carlos Sainz, Renault: + 1.861
12) Nico Hulkenberg, Renault: + 1.866
13) Daniil Kvyat, Toro Rosso: + 2.093
14) Kevin Magnussen, Haas: + 2.617
15) Stoffel Vandoorne, McLaren: + 2.795
16) Lance Stroll, Williams: + 3.120
17) Brendon Hartley, Toro Rosso: + 3.319
18) Pascal Wehrlein, Sauber: + 3.497
19) Marcus Ericsson, Sauber: + 3.594
20) Romain Grosjean, Haas: + 3.719
