---
title: "Hamilton heads Mercedes 1-2 in Brazil FP1"
canonical: "https://readmotorsport.com/2017/11/10/hamilton-heads-mercedes-1-2-brazil-fp1/"
type: "post"
language: "en-GB"
author: "Kyran Gibbons"
section: "F1 News"
published: "2017-11-10T13:57:20Z"
modified: "2017-11-10T14:07:17Z"
---

# Hamilton heads Mercedes 1-2 in Brazil FP1

Lewis Hamilton led Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas at the top of the timesheet in FP1 ahead of the Formula 1 Brazilian Grand Prix.

Hamilton ended the session 0.127s clear of Bottas, after the two had exchanged the top spot of the timesheet for much of the morning.

The track record was broken by Hamilton within the first 30 minutes of the session, as he recorded a 1m09.672s during an early run on the soft tyre.

Running the super-soft in the second half of the session, Hamilton lowered the benchmark to an eventual 1m09.202.

Behind the Mercedes duo, Kimi Raikkonen finished third, albeit half a second adrift of top spot. Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo were within a tenth of Raikkonen’s best.

However, both Red Bull drivers suffered from blistering of the front-left super-soft tyre in the final minutes of the session. Bottas and Williams’ Felipe Massa suffered in a similar fashion, as degradation in the opening session at Interlagos was typically high.

Sebastian Vettel finished nearly eight tenths adrift of Hamilton and was sixth. He spun at Turn 9 early in the session – his rear tyres not providing the necessary grip mid-corner.

Behind Vettel, Massa finished the morning in the ‘best-of-the-rest’ spot. The home favourite ran as high as third at the half-way mark of the session.

Stoffel Vandoorne was eighth for McLaren. He will compete against team-mate Fernando Alonso in equal machinery this weekend, as McLaren’s Mexico upgrades have been introduced to the Belgian’s side of the garage. Vandoorne ended the morning seven hundredths clear of Alonso, who was tenth.

GP3 champion and Mercedes junior George Russell made his F1 practice debut, driving for Force India. An innocuous lock-up at Turn 8 was his only fault, as he finished a promising 12th on the timesheet and just six tenths behind Esteban Ocon.

Meanwhile, F2 champion Charles Leclerc was equally impressive at Sauber. He beat Marcus Ericsson to 17th on the timesheet, edging out the Sauber regular by nearly a tenth.

Toro Rosso’s pairing propped up the timesheet. Brendon Hartley failed to set a time as his Renault power unit failed in dramatic fashion within 15 minutes of the green flag. Pierre Gasly suffered an MGU-K failure shortly afterwards.