All eyes are on Lewis Hamilton.
AUSTIN, Texas—Friday, November 1st—Lewis Hamilton got closer to clinching his sixth world driving title as the Briton recorded the fastest time of the Friday practice session with a 1:33:232 time. It was practice in preparation for Sunday’s Emirates United States Grand Prix at the Circuit of the Americas.
Lewis Hamilton (photo, Sky Sports)
Charles Leclerc was second in his Ferrari. Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, who was the fastest in the earlier morning session, stayed steady and finished in third.
Hamilton topped the timesheets just 45 minutes from the end of the afternoon session. The rest of the top ten were a mixture of Mercedes, Ferrari, Toro Rosso, McLaren, Racing Point, and Alfa. Sebastian Vettel took fourth, followed by Valtteri Bottas in fifth, and Alex Albon sixth.
These drivers all have a great chance to move up the grid on Sunday and try to achieve more points, but they will have to find more pace if they hope to make make it to the podium.
Pierre Gasly seems to be having more success with his Toro Rosso than he had when driving the more senior Red Bull car. The Frenchman set a great lap time early in the afternoon session and managed to hold on to finish seventh on the day. Carlos Sainz Jr. put one of the McLaren’s up in the top ten with an eighth-place, while both Lance Stroll and Antonio Giovinazzi were both surprises on the grid at ninth and tenth, respectively.
Many of the drivers went wide at turn 19, which resulted in their times being deleted for going over the white line. But for America’s Haas F1 Team, Romain Grosjean went a step further with just 12 minutes into the afternoon session.
But all eyes this weekend are on Hamilton. He can take the title with a finish of no lower than eighth place. More tension will be on teammate Bottas, though, who needs to win the race if the fight for the title is to have more life. If it does, then the matter could be settled two weeks from now when the circuit shifts to Brazil and its famed Interlagos circuit.
