Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz led the way in the first practice session at the Circuit of The Americas.
Sainz set a time of 1m 36.857s to lead Red Bull’s Max Verstappen by 0.224s, with Mercedes’s Lewis Hamilton rounding out the top three with a lap that was 0.475s off the pace.
Lance Stroll was fourth quickest for Aston Martin ahead of Sergio Perez, who along with Zhou Guanyu has received a five-place grid penalty for Sunday’s race.
FP1: Sainz leads Verstappen as four drivers make their debut at COTA
There were four rookie drivers out on track in FP1, with the Ferrari of Robert Shwartzman in 16th, Alex Palou in 17th for McLaren, Theo Pourchaire in 18th for Alfa Romeo, and Logan Sargeant in P19 for Williams. Stand-in Antonio Giovanazzi finished 20th after crashing his Haas early on, briefly bringing out the red flags.
Click on the video player above to relive the action from the first practice session in Austin, ahead of FP2 later today at 1700 local time.