US F1 Grand Prix 2015: Storm brewing as Ferrari engine penalty overshadows Lewis Hamilton’s championship bid

Scuderia drivers Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen will both suffer 10 place grid penalties in Austin after switching to an updated power unit

Lewis Hamilton in practice at the United States Grand Prix in Austin (AFP)

The timing of the United States Grand Prix at the Circuit of The Americas has never been its strong point. This year in particular it clashes with a big college football match in Austin, and a NASCAR race at Talladega. But it also comes right in the middle of some of the worst weather in north American history.

Down Mexico way, where Formula One will travel next weekend, Hurricane Patricia is set to break all records with speeds of 250 mph in the Guadalajara area north of Mexico City, and torrential rain is heading fast towards Texas, amid concerns in Austin that the anticipated deluge could disrupt qualifying.

Conditions deteriorated to the extent where the second practice session was cancelled as marshals were withdrawn from the murk because of the proximity of lightning.

As anticipated, it began raining well before this morning’s first session and the wet track obliged everyone to use Pirelli’s intermediates. Lewis Hamilton, who can win his third world title on Sunday if results go his way, reported that the grip level wasn’t bad, but there was a low-key feel to the 90 minutes as most drivers set a base time.

Once the Swedish Sauber drivers Marcus Ericsson and Raffaele Marciello had recorded the first timed laps, Nico Rosberg demonstrated his determination to win this weekend by setting the fastest time for Mercedes. Hamilton didn’t record a time until the first half-hour was over, and no sooner had he gone second quickest, half a second down, than his time was beaten by the Red Bulls of Daniel Ricciardo and then Daniil Kvyat. Rosberg then unobtrusively lowered his time to 1min 53.989sec, which remained fastest. Behind them Carlos Sainz showed no ill effects after his crash in practice for the Russian GP a fortnight ago by setting the fourth fastest time ahead of Hamilton, as team-mate Max Verstappen was sandwiched between the Ferraris of Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen.

The Ferrari drivers will both have 10 grid-pace penalties, as they will switch to an updated version of their engine as part of the strategy to run the most powerful unit available. Ferrari hope the latest version will give them parity with Mercedes by 2016, and as both drivers have used their season allocation of four engines already, following the last update for the Italian GP last month, they will receive the penalties for each using a fifth power unit.

“We will have the hit of 10 places penalty for a new engine here, but it has always been the plan,” Vettel said.“The story is that this was always the plan for us to have the strongest engine available at every single point of the season.”

It remains to be seen how Ferrari’s decision impacts on Vettel’s slim chance of challenging for the title. Hamilton is 66 points ahead of the German, and there are 100 points left on the table over the final four races. But there have been concerns about Mercedes’ reliability with the problems suffered by Rosberg in Italy, Japan and Russia, and Hamilton’s retirement in Singapore.