AUSTIN, Texas – Lewis Hamilton powered his Mercedes to the top of the practice charts on day one of United States Grand Prix weekend Friday at Circuit of the Americas.
Hamilton paced the overall charts thanks to a best lap of 1:33.232 during Friday’s second practice session, which put him three tenths clear of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc at the end of the day.
The likely Formula One champion took particular notice of how bumpy the 3.426-mile Circuit of the Americas track is this year.
“It was pretty cold out there on the track today, but at least the sun came out,” Hamilton said. “The first session was interesting as we tried the 2020 tires. FP2 was more of a normal session and it actually went quite smoothly. The track is very bumpy this year – bumps can add character to a circuit, so I’m not a fan of completely smooth circuits, but the bumps here are just massive.
“The problem for the drivers is that we don’t have really much suspension, it doesn’t really move very much, so it feel like sitting straight on the floor and your spine takes a lot of compression. The bumps felt pretty bad in FP1, but we made some changes to make it feel a little bit better for the afternoon session.”
Another driver who took particular notice of the bumps was Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, who was third fastest overall Friday.
“The track seems to be getting bumpier every year but luckily the bumps aren’t really in braking areas but it’s something that probably needs looking at before next year,” Verstappen said. “I don’t mind bumps on a street circuit but some of these are quite severe and more like a jump so the wheels actually come off the ground.”
Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel was fourth fastest overall despite ending the day with a spin in turn 13. Valtteri Bottas’ was fifth fastest, .813 seconds behind his Mercedes teammate Hamilton to close the day.
Vettel was far from the only driver who spun throughout the course of the day, with Carlos Sainz Jr., Antonio Giovinazzi, Romain Grosjean and Daniil Kvyat.