Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsFormula 1

Rosberg quickest, Alonso and Vettel hit trouble

Nico Rosberg set the fastest time of FP1 for the Austrian Grand Prix as both Fernando Alonso and Sebastian Vettel suffered from reliability issues.

On a cool Friday morning in Austria, Rosberg posted a best lap of 1:10.401 on the soft tyre to lead team-mate Lewis Hamilton by 0.3s. Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen was third on a 1:11.028, but his team-mate Sebastian Vettel propped up the standings after stopping on track after four laps.

Vettel had just completed his first timed lap - over 5s off the pace - when he ground to a halt out of Turn 1, pulling off track with smoke coming from his brakes. The Ferrari was parked in a position where it could be recovered and was back in the garage with a little under an hour of the session remaining, but Vettel never rejoined.

The quadruple world champion was still not the first driver to suffer problems, however, with Alonso failing to even complete one full lap before his McLaren hit trouble. Alonso radioed in to tell the team his engine had cut out at Turn 8, with his momentum allowing him to coast down the pit lane back to the garage.

Alonso attempted to return to the track after an hour of the session but moved forward an inch before looking round at his mechanics and remaining in the garage. The Spaniard eventually rejoined to complete 10 laps but never ran the new McLaren front wing, ending the session 2.8s off the pace.

Jenson Button was just 0.3s ahead of his team-mate as McLaren began the weekend over 2.5s off the pace and only a second ahead of Will Stevens in the Manor. The result will not be overly surprising for McLaren, with the team expecting to struggle on a circuit where power unit performance is critical.

While the Mercedes drivers were the only two to dip in to the 1m10s, both had off-track moments as low grip levels made life difficult throughout FP1. Hamilton had been set to challenge Rosberg's time before he went off at the penultimate corner and then locked up heavily in to Turn 1, failing to improve after those excursions.

Fourth was Valtteri Bottas as Williams again looked competitive in Austria - a circuit where it took a 1-2 in qualifying last year - with Felipe Nasr fifth for Sauber ahead of the two Red Bulls of Daniil Kvyat and Daniel Ricciardo. Max Verstappen, Felipe Massa and Sergio Perez completed the top ten, though Massa was part of a near-miss in the pit lane.

The Williams was released from its pit box in the opening stages of the session just as Ferrari team principal Maurizio Arrivabene attempted to cross the pit lane in front of him. Fortunately, Massa spotted Arrivabene and stopped, allowing the Italian to jump back out of the way before apologising.

Click here for F1i's exclusive interview with Daniel Ricciardo

Click here for the F1 drivers' girlfriends gallery

Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter

Pos	Driver	Team	Time	Laps
01	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1:10.401	36
02	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1:10.709	28
03	Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari	1:11.028	22
04	Valtteri Bottas	Williams	1:11.452	26
05	Felipe Nasr	Sauber	1:11.633	28
06	Daniil Kvyat	Red Bull	1:11.642	31
07	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull	1:11.724	29
08	Max Verstappen	Toro Rosso	1:11.825	38
09	Felipe Massa	Williams	1:11.890	29
10	Sergio Perez	Force India	1:11.905	37
11	Carlos Sainz	Toro Rosso	1:11.948	32
12	Pastor Maldonado	Lotus	1:12.004	34
13	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India	1:12.031	36
14	Jolyon Palmer	Lotus	1:12.050	27
15	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber	1:12.159	30
16	Jenson Button	McLaren	1:12.920	30
17	Fernando Alonso	McLaren	1:13.272	10
18	Will Stevens	Manor	1:13.937	29
19	Roberto Merhi	Manor	1:15.459	11
20	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	1:15.684	4

Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.