F1 News, Reports and Race Results

Rosberg quickest as kerbs stop Verstappen in FP1

Nico Rosberg set the fastest time of first free practice for the Austrian Grand Prix, in a session where new kerbs caused trouble.

The Red Bull Ring has been a happy hunting ground for Rosberg so far, with the championship leader having won both races since F1 returned to Austria in 2014. He opened up with some strong pace on Friday morning, with his time of 1:07.373 - set on supersoft tyres - leaving him 0.357s clear of team-mate Lewis Hamilton as four drivers posted laps quicker than last year's pole position time.

The benchmark in qualifying a year ago was 1:08.455 but ultrasoft tyres coupled with a new surface have contributing to quicker lap times, with Hamilton, Sebastian Vettel (1:08.022) and Kimi Raikkonen (1:08.222) all dipping under that mark.

Despite the quick times, the session was a tricky one which saw a lot of drivers punished for mistakes. Max Verstappen suffered the most damage, losing part of his front wing over new exit kerbs at Turn 8. There are a number of new additions designed to deter drivers, and after Verstappen complained about them being dangerous he then ran wide at Turn 5 and broke his front right suspension, sliding into the gravel at the next corner.

Verstappen was not along in having off-track excursions, with Hamilton spinning early at Turn 3, bouncing across the gravel and rolling back onto the track. Romain Grosjean was following Hamilton at the time and in taking evasive action he also spun, stopping on the inside of the circuit.

Rosberg also went off at the same corner, taking to the gravel and rejoining via an escape road, while Daniel Ricciardo did similar at the end of the session having run wide at Turn 6. Ricciardo ended FP1 fifth fastest but over a second slower than Rosberg.

There was also a worrying moment when Ricciardo attacked the penultimate corner but had Marcus Ericsson within the pit entry on the inside and the pair almost collided as Ericsson understeered and had two wheels outside the pit entry line. While Ricciardo took to team radio to say it wasn't Ericsson's fault, simply the nature of the pit entry, the stewards announced the Sauber driver is under investigation for crossing the white line.

Carlos Sainz was sixth fastest, just ahead of Felipe Massa who only ran on the supersoft tyre in the opening session compared to ultrasofts for those above him. Verstappen, Daniil Kvyat and Valtteri Bottas rounded out the top ten, with Kvyat also spinning late on at Turn 2.

Ferrari opted not to run the Halo cockpit protection device on the car itself, although it was visible outside the garage at the start of the session but never installed.

Manor enjoyed a competitive start to the weekend with Pascal Wehrlein 16th quickest on a track which should suit its car, but Force India's reserve driver Alfonso Celis Jr again struggled, setting the slowest time of the session some 1.5s off team-mate Nico Hulkenberg.

AS IT HAPPENED: Austrian Grand Prix - FP1

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Pos	Driver	Team	Time	Laps
01	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1:07.373	37
02	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1:07.730	34
03	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	1:08.022	28
04	Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari	1:08.222	31
05	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull	1:08.528	34
06	Carlos Sainz	Toro Rosso	1:08.803	34
07	Felipe Massa	Williams	1:08.824	39
08	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	1:08.962	21
09	Daniil Kvyat	Toro Rosso	1:08.990	32
10	Valtteri Bottas	Williams	1:08.998	40
11	Romain Grosjean	Haas	1:09.078	34
12	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India	1:09.280	43
13	Jenson Button	McLaren	1:09.365	31
14	Fernando Alonso	McLaren	1:09.567	30
15	Kevin Magnussen	Renault	1:09.707	24
16	Pascal Wehrlein	Manor	1:09.775	34
17	Jolyon Palmer	Renault	1:09.851	28
18	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber	1:09.929	35
19	Esteban Gutierrez	Haas	1:10.478	20
20	Felipe Nasr	Sauber	1:10.110	26
21	Rio Haryanto	Manor	1:10.493	21
22	Alfonso Celis	Force India	1:10.860	37

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.