Austin FP2: Hamilton reigns in the rain

When they were out on the Circuit of the Americas, no one could match Hamilton. In the morning he was 1.3 seconds faster than his closest rival in the six timed laps he did, in the afternoon stanza again the world champion topped the timing screens with only three laps run in anger.

This time he was a full second faster than second-placed Pierre Gasly in the Toro Rosso who was five-hundredths of a second faster than Red Bull's Max Verstappen in third.

Beyond the top three the times were meaningless, while a number of drivers did not even bother to set a fast lap time in the prevailing afternoon conditions, most not keen to 'waste' wet weather tyres which are limited.

Brendon Hartley (Toro Rosso) and Stoffel Vandoorne (McLaren) both sat out the morning FP1 session as reserves Sean Galeal and Lando Norris were on duty in their cars, Hartley made up for lost time by completing 19 laps in while Vandoorne did 10 during the 90-minute sessions, most of the other drivers did far less.