Hockenheim, FP1: Rosberg tops FP1 timesheet in Germany

Nico Rosberg set the quickest lap of opening practice for the German Grand Prix at Hockenheim, runing 0.3s than team-mate Lewis Hamilton, with Sebatian Vettel for Ferrari.

Rosberg set his fastest time of 1:15.517 on the supersoft tyre and while Hamilton as used the red banded Pirelli compound he couldn’t match the German and finished 0.326 down as the Mercedes pairing renewed hostilities following last weekend’s fractious Hungarian Grand Prix in which Hamilton took the lead of the Drivers’ Championship for the first time this season.

Vettel, meanwhile, finished the 90-minute outing over 1.1s behind Rosberg, with Kimi Raikkonen fourth ahead of the Red Bulls of max Verstappen in fifth place and Daniel Ricciardo in sixth. Verttel was 0.260s ahead of Dutchman Verstappen and almost half a second up on Ricciardo, who beat his former team-mate to the final podium spot last time out in Budapest.

The two-by-two nature of the session continued with McLaren’s Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button annexing seventh and eighth positions respectively, while the Toro Rosso pair of Daniil Kvyat and Carlos Sainz completed the top 10 order. All of the top 10 times were achieved on the supersoft tyres.

Further back Charles Leclerc enjoyed a positive morning for Haas, with the Monegasque racer finishing 17th, within 0.3s of regular Haas race Romain Grosjean. Over at Renault, Esteban Ocon stood in for Jolyon Palmer and he ended up just 0.048s slower than team-mate Kevin Magnussen.