Rosberg lays down early marker before Rossi crash

Nico Rosberg set the pace in the first practice session for the Singapore Grand Prix, beating Lewis Hamilton and Daniel Ricciardo by 0.3s.

The Mercedes driver is 53 points adrift of his team-mate in the drivers’ championship following his retirement in Monza two weeks ago, but he got his Singapore weekend off to the perfect start by posting the fastest time with a 1:47.995. Rosberg is using the updated Mercedes power unit once again after problems in Italy, but he’s on his fourth unit compared to Hamilton’s third.

Hamilton appeared to struggle slightly more than his team-mate during the opening session as he was over 0.3s adrift and had an excursion at Turn 7. Braking for the left hander at the end of a long straight, Hamilton found himself briefly pointing towards the outside barrier and had to catch the rear before taking to the escape road.

Daniel Ricciardo was third fastest and just 0.017s slower than Hamilton as Red Bull showed the expected improvement on a circuit which places less emphasis on power unit performance. Ferrari was also within striking distance of the Mercedes pair as Sebastian Vettel was fourth quickest, half a second slower than Rosberg.

Like Hamilton, Vettel also had a worrying moment when he got wide on the entry to Turn 5 and locked up to avoid running in to the barrier. Vettel was able to reverse away from the wall and continue, but one driver not so fortunate was Manor rookie Alexander Rossi.

On his first appearance of 2015, Rossi - who will race in five of the final seven rounds - lost the rear of his car at Turn 18 and hit the wall hard on the outside of the track as it cuts under a grandstand. The whole right hand side of the car was heavily damaged in the impact, with the session ending under red flags due to the incident.

It was a disappointing end to the session for Rossi, who had been just 0.015s slower than team-mate Will Stevens during FP1, with the two Manor drivers almost six seconds off the pace in the opening practice session.

Sergio Perez was another driver to push a bit too hard at the same corner as Rossi, having to take to the escape road before turning in and spinning his Force India round to rejoin.

McLaren enjoyed a more encouraging session with Fernando Alonso up in 11th place, albeit over two seconds slower than Rosberg but just 0.6s adrift of sixth-placed Valtteri Bottas. The weaknesses of the Honda power unit should be less pronounced around the Marina Bay Circuit, allowing McLaren to compete in what is set to be a tightly-packed midfield.

While Ricciardo set an encouraging time for Red Bull, there was trouble for Daniil Kvyat who was confined to the garage for much of the opening half of the session and ended FP1 with just eight laps to his name and a time only quicker than the two Manor cars.

AS IT HAPPENED: Singapore Grand Prix FP1

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Click here for some of the most memorable crashes at Singapore

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