» Bottas leads Mercedes 1-2 in FP1

Valtteri Bottas and teammate Lewis Hamilton claimed a 1-2 result in the opening practice session of the Mexican Formula 1 Grand Prix, comfortably heading rival outfits Red Bull Racing and Ferrari.

The Brackley outfit, which won its fourth successive Constructors’ Championship title at last weekend’s Grand Prix in the United States, saw its two star drivers trade fastest laps at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez, eclipsing last year’s pole position lap time.

Bottas would prove the quicker on the low-grip circuit following a switch to Ultra Soft tyres, posting a 1:17.824 time that was almost half-a-second quicker than Hamilton.

The chasing duos from Red Bull Racing and Ferrari both posted their fastest times of the session on the more durable Soft-compound tyres, believed to be up to 0.3 seconds per lap slower.

The quartet was headed by Max Verstappen – who finally apologised to FIA Race Director Charlie Whiting for his post-race outburst in Austin – and teammate Daniel Ricciardo, with the Ferraris of Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Räikkönen further back.

It was an untidy session for the red cars, with Vettel twice finding the run-off at Turns 1 and 7, while Räikkönen had a spin at Turn 6.

Crowd favourite Sergio Pérez started his home Grand Prix positively by finishing the session seventh-fastest ahead of McLaren’s Fernando Alonso and Williams’ Felipe Massa, however the sister car normally driven by teammate Esteban Ocon did not fare as well.

Ocon had stepped aside to give the team’s well-funded development driver Alfonso Celis Jr an FP1 outing, however the youngster caused significant rear-end damage to the Frenchman’s racing car when he applied too much throttle and spun backwards into the Turn 16 wall.

Alfonso Celis Jr., Force India Mercedes VJM10 - 2017 Mexican Grand Prix

Force India development driver Alfonso Celis Jr. caused a red flag and plenty of damage by crashing out of FP1. (FOM)

The Renault pairing of Nico Hülkenberg and Carlos Sainz Jr. claimed tenth and eleventh on the timesheets ahead of the second Williams of Lance Stroll.

Despite losing track time with a suspected cooling issue, Kevin Magnussen was the quicker of the Haas-Ferrari drivers and thirteenth-fastest overall. The team’s second VF-17 Ferrari was occupied by Ferrari Academy driver Antonio Giovinazzi, who deputised in place of Romain Grosjean – the Italian was fifteenth-quickest behind Sauber’s Pascal Wehrlein.

Newly crowned FIA Formula 2 champion Charles Leclerc had another FP1 hit-out for Sauber, this time in place of Marcus Ericsson, with the Monegasque driver placing sixteenth-fastest. Fellow Formula 2 driver Sean Gelael had another outing for Toro Rosso, piloting Pierre Gasly’s STR12 to 17th-fastest.

The sister car of Brendon Hartley had a troubled session. The New Zealander slowed after just 10 laps with an apparent engine problem and although he managed to limp back to the pits, he took no further part in proceedings.

Also joining him on the sidelines was Stoffel Vandoorne, who was confined to just three installation laps amid ongoing Honda power unit troubles in his McLaren.

Friday’s second practice session in Mexico City will begin at 14:00 local time (GMT -6).

FORMULA 1 GRAN PREMIO DE MÉXICO 2017 – FREE PRACTICE 1 RESULTS
	Driver	Team / Entry	Time	Tyre	Laps
1.	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes AMG Petronas F1W08	1:17.824		42
2.	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes AMG Petronas F1W08	1:18.290		35
3.	Max Verstappen	Red Bull Racing Tag Heuer RB13	1:18.395		16
4.	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull Racing Tag Heuer RB13	1:18.421		28
5.	Sebastian Vettel	Scuderia Ferrari SF70H	1:18.586		28
6.	Kimi Räikkönen	Scuderia Ferrari SF70H	1:19.008		27
7.	Sergio Pérez	Sahara Force India Mercedes VJM10	1:19.240		21
8.	Fernando Alonso	McLaren-Honda MCL32	1:19.346		20
9.	Felipe Massa	Williams Martini Racing Mercedes FW40	1:19.443		32
10.	Nico Hülkenberg	Renault Sport F1 Team RS17	1:19.552		19
11.	Carlos Sainz Jr	Renault Sport F1 Team RS17	1:19.554		24
12.	Lance Stroll	Williams Martini Racing Mercedes FW40	1:19.772		34
13.	Kevin Magnussen	Haas F1 Team Ferrari VF-17	1:20.644		16
14.	Pascal Wehrlein	Sauber F1 Team Ferrari C36	1:20.971		30
15.	Antonio Giovinazzi	Haas F1 Team Ferrari VF-17	1:21.269		26
16.	Charles Leclerc	Sauber F1 Team Ferrari C36	1:21.446		28
17.	Sean Gelael	Scuderia Toro Rosso Renault STR12	1:21.639		29
18.	Brendon Hartley	Scuderia Toro Rosso Renault STR12	1:21.747		10
19.	Alfonso Celis Jr	Sahara Force India Mercedes VJM10	1:22.342		17
20.	Stoffel Vandoorne	McLaren-Honda MCL32	no time		3