Carlos Sainz fastest from Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton in FP1 for United States Grand Prix

Carlos Sainz was fastest in the opening practice session of the United States Grand Prix from Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton in Austin.

The times tumbled throughout the session as the track rubbered up and got faster, with Sainz going 0.224 seconds quicker than Verstappen, who had a scruffy lap.

Lewis Hamilton was 0.475 seconds behind Sainz in third, ahead of Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll.

Sergio Perez was fifth but the FIA announced he and Zhou Guanyu will take five-grid place penalties for a fifth internal combustion engine. More drivers set to join them on the grid penalty list as the weekend progresses due to excessive use of power unit elements.

Sixth was Fernando Alonso, who headed George Russell and Pierre Gasly with the trio separated by one tenth of a second.

Lando Norris and Sebastian Vettel rounded out the top 10 in a relatively quiet session at the Circuit of the Americas.

There were four young drivers competing in FP1, due to regulations that state the teams must field two inexperienced drivers in two practice sessions during the season, plus Haas test driver Antonio Giovinazzi who drove Kevin Magnussen’s car.

Giovinazzi caused an early red flag after a spin at Turn 6 and didn’t return to the track because he overheated his clutch, despite getting back to the garage.

As for the F1 debutants, Alex Palou took Daniel Ricciardo’s McLaren spot, Robert Shwartzman was in Charles Leclerc’s seat, Theo Pourchaire was in Valtteri Bottas’ Alfa Romeo and Logan Sargeant was in for Nicholas Latifi at Williams.

Shwartzman was the fastest of the quartet in 16th place, two seconds slower than Sainz whilst Palou and Pourchaire were both three seconds behind and Sargeant down in 19th.