Rosberg heads Mercedes one-two as practice begins

2016 German Grand Prix first practice

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The Mercedes pair were on top as usual in an uneventful first practice session at the Hockenheimring.

Hockenheim Friday practice in pictures
Nico Rosberg set the quickest time of the session on super-soft tyres, posting a 1’15.517 which was over a second faster than his pole position time on F1’s last visit to the German circuit. Lewis Hamilton ended up three-tenths of a second off his team mate.

The competition was over a second behind despite every driver in the top ten using super-soft tyres to set their best time. Sebastian Vettel was 1.1 seconds adrift, followed by team mate Kimi Raikkonen.

The Ferrari drivers caused some consternation among their rivals by holding them up at various points. A furious Romain Grosjean accused Vettel of impeding him twice, and Fernando Alonso suggested on the radio “we need to make a new circuit for the Ferraris”.

The McLaren driver ended up seventh quickest, the Red Bulls separating him from his former team. With Button eighth ahead of the two Toro Rossos, the top ten was sorted neatly two-by-two.

Grosjean had a spin late in the session at turn ten and finished in 14th place. Charles Leclerc took over the second Haas from Esteban Gutierrez in this session.

The only other test driver in action was Esteban Ocon, who took over Jolyon Palmer’s Renault, but had to pit after reporting a power steering problem.

Pos. No. Driver Car Best lap Gap Laps
1 6 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1’15.517 32
2 44 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1’15.843 0.326 30
3 5 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 1’16.667 1.150 29
4 7 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 1’16.852 1.335 23
5 33 Max Verstappen Red Bull-TAG Heuer 1’16.927 1.410 29
6 3 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull-TAG Heuer 1’17.089 1.572 30
7 14 Fernando Alonso McLaren-Honda 1’17.183 1.666 18
8 22 Jenson Button McLaren-Honda 1’17.612 2.095 15
9 26 Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1’18.008 2.491 24
10 55 Carlos Sainz Jnr Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1’18.044 2.527 22
11 9 Marcus Ericsson Sauber-Ferrari 1’18.198 2.681 28
12 77 Valtteri Bottas Williams-Mercedes 1’18.210 2.693 37
13 19 Felipe Massa Williams-Mercedes 1’18.322 2.805 33
14 8 Romain Grosjean Haas-Ferrari 1’18.589 3.072 20
15 27 Nico Hulkenberg Force India-Mercedes 1’18.591 3.074 35
16 11 Sergio Perez Force India-Mercedes 1’18.628 3.111 29
17 50 Charles Leclerc Haas-Ferrari 1’18.882 3.365 32
18 20 Kevin Magnussen Renault 1’18.933 3.416 35
19 12 Felipe Nasr Sauber-Ferrari 1’18.961 3.444 22
20 45 Esteban Ocon Renault 1’18.981 3.464 30
21 88 Rio Haryanto Manor-Mercedes 1’19.167 3.650 34
22 94 Pascal Wehrlein Manor-Mercedes 1’19.975 4.458 33

First practice visual gaps

Nico Rosberg – 1’15.517

+0.326 Lewis Hamilton – 1’15.843

+1.150 Sebastian Vettel – 1’16.667

+1.335 Kimi Raikkonen – 1’16.852

+1.410 Max Verstappen – 1’16.927

+1.572 Daniel Ricciardo – 1’17.089

+1.666 Fernando Alonso – 1’17.183

+2.095 Jenson Button – 1’17.612

+2.491 Daniil Kvyat – 1’18.008

+2.527 Carlos Sainz Jnr – 1’18.044

+2.681 Marcus Ericsson – 1’18.198

+2.693 Valtteri Bottas – 1’18.210

+2.805 Felipe Massa – 1’18.322

+3.072 Romain Grosjean – 1’18.589

+3.074 Nico Hulkenberg – 1’18.591

+3.111 Sergio Perez – 1’18.628

+3.365 Charles Leclerc – 1’18.882

+3.416 Kevin Magnussen – 1’18.933

+3.444 Felipe Nasr – 1’18.961

+3.464 Esteban Ocon – 1’18.981

+3.650 Rio Haryanto – 1’19.167

+4.458 Pascal Wehrlein – 1’19.975

Drivers more then ten seconds off the pace omitted.

2016 German Grand Prix

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2016 F1 practice sessions

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    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...

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    18 comments on “Rosberg heads Mercedes one-two as practice begins”

    1. mog
      29th July 2016, 10:55

      Be interesting to see if McLaren can carry pace through the weekend

      1. Profile Photo

        Deej92 (@deej92)
        29th July 2016, 12:30

        I wonder if McLaren are genuinely becoming the ‘best of the rest’ behind the top 3 teams. Williams are certainly no longer that going on recent events.

    2. Profile Photo

      Chrysostomos (@ccharisis)
      29th July 2016, 11:09

      After destroying Q3 in Austria Alonso shouldn’t talk and concentrate on his driving. According to his saying, he drives the second fastest car on the grid although in the races his is lapped even from the P6 driver. So I guess he has to improve his driving skills.

    3. Profile Photo

      GeeMac (@geemac)
      29th July 2016, 11:09

      Another 7th for Alonso…

      1. abashrawi
        29th July 2016, 11:46

        So he went from consistent 5th at Ferrari to consistent 7th at McLaren.

      2. Martin
        29th July 2016, 12:47

        6 consecutive sessions of finishing in the same position. I wonder what the longest streak is for that.

    4. Profile Photo

      Christopher Rehn (@chrischrill)
      29th July 2016, 11:12

      Surprisingly strong Sauber showing, with Marcus Ericsson in P11 despite running the same engine he had in Australia (!) during the Friday session. Let’s hope for a dry qualifying, so that he doesn’t crash again…

    5. MEGATRON
      29th July 2016, 11:20

      Ericsson Unusually high, Haryanto showing well ahead of WER.

      1.15s From 1st Merc to 2nd Ferrari
      2.5s from Ferrari(2nd) to Manor(11th & last)
      … astonishing pace from he Mercs

      1. Profile Photo

        evered7 (@evered7)
        29th July 2016, 11:37

        Ferrari will be running the old engines in FP. They are on 4 engines already. So expect the gap to reduce a little come qualifying.

        1. Profile Photo

          petebaldwin (@)
          29th July 2016, 11:40

          Although to be fair, Hamilton will everything turned down to 0.00001 to protect his engine as well. We all know they have another 1s in engine performance if they choose to use it.

        2. MEGATRON
          29th July 2016, 11:55

          Everybody is running old engines turned down.

    6. NewDust
      29th July 2016, 11:20

      Fernando Alonso continuing his 7th streak.

    7. Profile Photo

      Tricky (@tricky)
      29th July 2016, 12:27

      There really is an ever widening gap between Mercedes and its customer teams. At Silverstone the fastest Q time of a Mercedes was 2.1s quicker than Williams – that is quite some margin, especially if the engines (and software) are the same on all cars.

      1. Profile Photo

        Alec Glen (@alec-glen)
        29th July 2016, 13:37

        Will only get worse next year when engine development’s opened up…

    8. Gary
      29th July 2016, 12:40

      Why is Pascal Wehrlein so highly rated by Mercedes? I mean let’s be clear, Mercedes can have any aspiring F1 driver (or world champion) it desires in their garage. It’s within that context I ask the question. I’m sure WEH is a good racer, but he is not dominating HAR, not even close.

      1. Profile Photo

        Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
        29th July 2016, 13:21

        Remember Pascal wasn’t racing formula cars recently before his switch to F1. And he barely knows any circuit F1 visits…

        But yeah… I was also expecting him to put a bigger difference between himself and Rio.

        1. Profile Photo

          Alec Glen (@alec-glen)
          29th July 2016, 13:41

          I think it’s fair to say Pascal’s leaving Rio for dust on Sundays, different game to Fri/Sat though where that car struggles with tyre warmup particularly getting the one lap pace in.

    9. Profile Photo

      sato113 (@sato113)
      29th July 2016, 12:47

      ‘the top ten was sorted nearly two-by-two’
      @keithcollantine I think you mean ‘neatly’ ;)

    Comments are closed.