Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsFormula 1

Rosberg tops FP1 despite stopping on track

Nico Rosberg set the fastest time of the opening practice session for the British Grand Prix despite missing out on a lot of running when he stopped on track.

Rosberg was on just his fifth lap when he was told to stop his car immediately due to a lack of hydraulic pressure. The issue required a gearbox change which Mercedes impressively completed in time for Rosberg to return to the track late in the session, and he duly set a time of 1:34.274 to pip Lewis Hamilton by 0.070s on his final lap

Hamilton had topped the majority of FP1 and the two Mercedes drivers were over a second clear of the rest of the field, with the Toro Rossos of Max Verstappen and Carlos Sainz third and fifth fastest respectively in the opening session. Hamilton didn't enjoy a completely smooth session, however, as he suffered a high-speed spin early on. The 2014 world champion ran a little wide exiting Stowe, unsettling his car on the kerb and lost control when he overcorrected as the rear stepped out.

Kimi Raikkonen split the two Toro Rosso drivers in fourth place despite an MGU-H issue for the Finn, while Sebastian Vettel was sixth in the second Ferrari but both drivers were more than 1.3s adrift of Rosberg's fastest time.

Red Bull enjoyed a more encouraging start to the weekend with Daniel Ricciardo and Daniil Kvyat seventh and eighth quickest respectively. The high speed corners at Silverstone should suit the RB11 more than the last two circuits in Canada and Austria.

Nico Hulkenberg was ninth as both Force India drivers ran the B-spec VJM08, with Felipe Massa tenth for Williams. Massa was joined by Susie Wolff in the opening session, with Wolff finishing 13th quickest, 0.8s adrift of the lead Williams on a 1:37.242.

Wolff headed the three reserve drivers running in FP1, with Jolyon Palmer 14th and Raffaelle Marciello 15th quickest. Palmer was the only driver to be faster than his team-mate, with Pastor Maldonado 16th for Lotus.

McLaren had to manage its running once again, with Fernando Alonso 17th and completing just 12 laps as he is using an old Honda power unit. Jenson Button managed only 10 laps and was 0.6s slower than his team-mate as McLaren had to fix a leak at the start of the session, with Button ending up just 0.121s clear of Will Stevens in the updated Manor.

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Pos	Driver	Team	Time	Laps
01	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1:34.274	12
02	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1:34.344	26
03	Max Verstappen	Toro Rosso	1:35.530	18
04	Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari	1:35.588	21
05	Carlos Sainz	Toro Rosso	1:35.669	33
06	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	1:35.739	17
07	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull	1:35.818	26
08	Daniil Kvyat	Red Bull	1:35.876	22
09	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India	1:36.157	28
10	Felipe Massa	Williams	1:36.459	23
11	Felipe Nasr	Sauber	1:36.855	20
12	Sergio Perez	Force India	1:36.889	26
13	Susie Wolff	Williams	1:37.242	19
14	Jolyon Palmer	Lotus	1:37.262	26
15	Raffaele Marciello	Sauber	1:37.372	17
16	Pastor Maldonado	Lotus	1:38.080	8
17	Fernando Alonso	McLaren	1:38.222	12
18	Jenson Button	McLaren	1:38.860	10
19	Will Stevens	Manor	1:38.981	23
20	Roberto Merhi	Manor	1:40.477	23

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.