Albon on top in Brazil practice before crashing in the rain

Red Bull new boy Alexander Albon topped the times and crashed in the rain in Friday's opening free practice at this weekend's Brazilian Grand Prix.

The London-born Thai driver, whose place with the team for 2020 was confirmed this week, clocked a best lap in one minute and 16.142 seconds on intermediate tyres, but lost control as soon as he switched to slicks in the final minutes.

The session was red-flagged and did not re-start.

Just 60 seconds after his team-mate Max Verstappen had spun and recovered, on his first lap on slicks, Albon fell victim to the conditions, sliding off into a wall and damaging the right front wheel of his car.

He wound up fastest ahead of Mercedes' Valtteri Bottas and the Ferraris of Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc, with Carlos Sainz fifth for McLaren.

Six-time world champion Lewis Hamilton did not clock a time in his Mercedes, taking a cautious approach to avoid taking risks.

Heavy rain overnight resulted in only the Ferraris, led by Vettel, and then both Alfa Romeos, Kimi Raikkonen leading, risking the conditions.

After 20 minutes, however, everyone bar Hamilton and the Racing Point and Red Bull teams had been out in the rain.

Carlos Sainz was the first man to set any kind of lap time with 1:23.689 in his McLaren after 24 minutes, a full 14 seconds slower than the lap time in the same session in 2018.

As conditions improved, the Spaniard trimmed that by 1.5 seconds.

The Racing Points soon joined the action while the Red Bulls and Hamilton, sporting a new Ayrton Senna-esque helmet with a yellow, blue and green on top, prepared for work.

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