Persistent rain and water-laden clouds over Austin did little to douse the hot form of Formula 1 title contender Lewis Hamilton as he topped the timing screens at Circuit of the Americas in the wet first free practice session of the United States Grand Prix weekend.
Conditions were very slippery, the track and even pit lane perilously tricky to negotiate. Off-track excursions were plentiful during the ninety minutes.
Just short of the halfway mark Charles Leclerc went off-roading over the gravel, scattering stones and muck onto the track which brought out a red flag for marshalls to clear the debris.
On the hour mark, Hamilton popped to the top of the timing screens by a massive 1.3 seconds up on Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas in second. The world champion in the #44 car simply on another level to his teammate and rivals.
A tad slower than the Finn was Red Bull's Max Verstappen in third, the Dutchman half a second up on teammate Daniel Ricciardo in fourth.
Nearly two seconds adrift of the top time were Ferrari duo, with Sebastian Vettel fifth and Kimi Raikkonen a further half second adrift in sixth. The red cars visibly struggling for grip.
Carlos Sainz was Best of the Rest in the Renault, three seconds down on the top time. The Spaniard finding the sweet spot while teammate Nico Hulkenberg appeared to struggle and was down in 18th.
Romain Grosjean in the Haas led a trio of Ferrari powered drivers, the Frenchman finishing eighth, ahead of Sauber duo Leclerc and Marcus Ericsson ninth and tenth respectively.
Just outside the top ten were McLaren's Fernando Alonso in 11th and Lando Norris 12th, the teenager on duty in place of Stoffel Vandoorne ending only a couple of tenths shy of the veteran Spaniard on his first visit to COTA.
Toro Rosso gave Sean Galeal a run in Brendon Hartley's car, he was slowest of all.
Notably, the gap from the top time Hamilton to Sainz in seventh was 3.16 seconds, while the gap from Sainz to Esteban Ocon in 17th was only a second.
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