Bottas leads a Mercedes 1-2 in first free practice at the United States Grand Prix

Valtteri Bottas finished on top of the time charts at the 2021 United States Grand Prix at the Circuit of The Americas (COTA) in Austin, Texas. Lewis Hamilton was in second position and Max Verstappen in third position at the end of the first free practice session.

The race returns to this circuit after two years as the 2020 race was cancelled due to the Covid19 pandemic. The championship battle between Verstappen and Hamilton is at fever pitch with six races to go and just six points separating the two drivers.

The circuit has sunk since its debut on the Formula 1 calendar in 2012 which has created bumps at different places. The impact of these bumps on the setup and performance of the cars will be watched closely all weekend.

The sixty-minute long first free practice session started under clear skies and sunny conditions with air temperatures at 28 degrees C and track temperatures at 30 degrees C.

The Pirelli tyre choice at this race is the white-striped hard compound tyres (C2), yellow-striped medium compound tyres (C3), and red-striped soft compound tyres (C4).

Sergio Pérez was the first driver out on the track for an installation lap. Fernando Alonso brought out the red flags immediately as he stopped out on the track at Turn 12.

All the drivers except Alonso were on the track when the session resumed. Hamilton went to the top of time charts with a lap time of 1m37.260s. Verstappen was in second position just 0.077 seconds behind him.

Charles Leclerc had a spin and went into the gravel at Turn 6 but managed to keep the car out of the barriers. Hamilton improved on his lap time as Lando Norris and Daniel Ricciardo slotted into second and fourth positions.

Pérez went to the top of the time charts on the hard compound tyres and he was 0.014 seconds faster than Hamilton.

With thirty minutes to go, Hamilton was back on top of the time charts as he went faster than Pérez by 0.417 seconds. Sebastian Vettel on a set of new soft compound tyres went fastest but his lap time was deleted for exceeding track limits at Turn 9.

With twenty minutes to go, Verstappen on a set of soft compound tyres went fastest with a lap time of 1m36.049s, 0.332 seconds faster than Hamilton.

With fifteen minutes to go, Bottas and Hamilton were on the top of the time charts. Verstappen in third position was more than one second slower than Bottas.

Alonso was back on track after the Alpine F1 team fixed his reliability issues and the Spaniard set his first timed lap to take eighteenth position.

The session ended with Bottas leading a Mercedes 1-2 at the top of the time charts. Verstappen was in third position 0.932 seconds behind Bottas.

The two Ferrari drivers, Leclerc and Carlos Sainz were in fourth and fifth positions a further 0.5 seconds slower than Verstappen. Pierre Gasly was in good form as he finished in sixth position ahead of Pérez.

Norris was in eighth position ahead of the two Alfa Romeo Racing drivers, Antonio Giovinazzi and Kimi Räikkönen in ninth and tenth positions.

The afternoon session will take place at a similar time as the qualification session and under very hot conditions.

2021 United States GP FP1 Results: