Mercedes was comfortably fastest in first practice for Formula 1's Las Vegas Grand Prix, with Lewis Hamilton's pacesetting 1m35.001s lap nearly one second faster than the best non-Mercedes.

The caveat to its performance is that the first Thursday night session on a dusty track may not be especially representative for the rest of the weekend.

But in practice one at least, Mercedes held a 1-2 for most of the session, only really losing it when others went for soft tyres and regaining it when Hamilton and George Russell did likewise.

Hamilton's final lap put him 0.396s ahead of Russell, with third-placed Lando Norris's McLaren 0.953s off the top.

The Ferraris of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz (running an experimental floor) were fourth and sixth, sandwiching Max Verstappen's Red Bull.