Mercedes on top as Rossi ends first session in the wall

2015 Singapore Grand Prix first practice

Posted on

| Written by

The first practice session for the Singapore Grand Prix ended with the customary Mercedes one-two, but their rivals were closer than usual around the street circuit.

Nico Rosberg headed the times but Daniel Ricciardo’s Red Bull and Sebastian Vettel’s Ferrari both ended the session within half a second of the quickest Mercedes – the latter despite a brief off at turn five towards the end of the session.

Rossi hit the wall a few minutes before the end of the session
Ricciardo was optimistic he could find more time to further close his 0.3-second deficit to Rosberg. “I think if I put the lap together we’re looking alright,” he commented on the radio. However team mate Daniil Kvyat lost some running while the team investigated a fuel system problem.

Kvyat returned to the track shortly before the end but his run and everyone else’s was curtailed when Alexander Rossi hit the barrier at turn 18. The Manor driver, who has taken over Roberto Merhi’s car this weekend, had been just 15 thousandths of a second off his team mate’s pace.

Max Verstappen, making his debut on the Singapore track, ended the session in seventh place behind Valtteri Bottas. Team mate Carlos Sainz Jnr joined him in the top ten, as did Pastor Maldonado, though Lotus brought him into the garage early in order to check his gearbox.

Pos.No.DriverCarBest lapGapLaps
16Nico RosbergMercedes1’47.99527
244Lewis HamiltonMercedes1’48.3140.31924
33Daniel RicciardoRed Bull-Renault1’48.3310.33621
45Sebastian VettelFerrari1’48.4940.49923
57Kimi RaikkonenFerrari1’48.7850.79020
677Valtteri BottasWilliams-Mercedes1’49.3801.38519
733Max VerstappenToro Rosso-Renault1’49.4661.47117
827Nico HulkenbergForce India-Mercedes1’49.8541.85921
955Carlos Sainz JnrToro Rosso-Renault1’50.0192.02428
1013Pastor MaldonadoLotus-Mercedes1’50.0682.07321
1114Fernando AlonsoMcLaren-Honda1’50.1232.12821
1211Sergio PerezForce India-Mercedes1’50.1252.13023
1312Felipe NasrSauber-Ferrari1’50.1582.16318
148Romain GrosjeanLotus-Mercedes1’50.3412.34623
1522Jenson ButtonMcLaren-Honda1’50.4552.46021
169Marcus EricssonSauber-Ferrari1’50.8832.88821
1719Felipe MassaWilliams-Mercedes1’51.0353.04018
1826Daniil KvyatRed Bull-Renault1’51.1883.1938
1928Will StevensManor-Ferrari1’53.9035.90820
2053Alexander RossiManor-Ferrari1’53.9185.92318

First practice visual gaps

Nico Rosberg – 1’47.995

+0.319 Lewis Hamilton – 1’48.314

+0.336 Daniel Ricciardo – 1’48.331

+0.499 Sebastian Vettel – 1’48.494

+0.790 Kimi Raikkonen – 1’48.785

+1.385 Valtteri Bottas – 1’49.380

+1.471 Max Verstappen – 1’49.466

+1.859 Nico Hulkenberg – 1’49.854

+2.024 Carlos Sainz Jnr – 1’50.019

+2.073 Pastor Maldonado – 1’50.068

+2.128 Fernando Alonso – 1’50.123

+2.130 Sergio Perez – 1’50.125

+2.163 Felipe Nasr – 1’50.158

+2.346 Romain Grosjean – 1’50.341

+2.460 Jenson Button – 1’50.455

+2.888 Marcus Ericsson – 1’50.883

+3.040 Felipe Massa – 1’51.035

+3.193 Daniil Kvyat – 1’51.188

+5.908 Will Stevens – 1’53.903

+5.923 Alexander Rossi – 1’53.918

Author information

Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

Got a potential story, tip or enquiry? Find out more about RaceFans and contact us here.

18 comments on “Mercedes on top as Rossi ends first session in the wall”

  1. Kvyat on podium this weekend.

    1. Oh, that’s a given. Question is, who will get the other spots of the podium :)

    2. @huhhii Not if Max has anything to do with it!

      1. Max “The Kid” Verstappen first podium this weekend? Let’s hope so….he is the real deal and legend in the making

        Senna 2.0

    3. Flip the order and he will be.

  2. Nico Rosberg headed the times but Daniel Ricciardo’s Red Bull and Sebastian Vettel’s Vettel both ended the session within half a second of the quickest Mercedes – the latter despite a brief off at turn five towards the end of the session.

    ^ Sebastian Vettel’s Ferrari

    1. These buy-out rumors are getting more rediculous by the week :D

    2. It was interesting to see how quickly Nico Rosberg found a rhythm. He set a low 1:50 ten minutes into the session and improved to a mid-1:49 shortly after, with the rest of the top teams lapping a couple of seconds slower. So that’s a good start for him, as he probably won’t need to change his setup too much.
      The question is: Is he really using his 4th PU already, or were Mercedes able to resurrect his updated engine from Monza?

    3. That was ridiculously funny for some reason :D

  3. Willem Cecchi (@)
    18th September 2015, 13:39

    The bottom picture: Unsafe release by Manor…

  4. Massa looking quick this weekend

    1. he is too old for this :P

  5. Shame for Rossi. Really not what he needed.

    1. 15 thousandths off Stevens best time already.

  6. I was thinking “hm, Rossi’s first session is going quite well” literally seconds before he hit that wall :-)

    1. well now Stevens is in the wall too… neither had proper tyre pressures and both are in a 2014 car. Coincidence?

  7. of all the tracks, this is the track that shows which chassis are the best… last year with Mercedes massive power advantage, they finished only .2 seconds ahead of redbull in qualitying. this tracks also proves that Mercedes advantage is mainly because of power unit. I predict a Ferrari pole!

Comments are closed.