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Malaysian GP: Rosberg leads Hamilton by 0.5s in FP1

Nico Rosberg topped the opening practice session at Sepang, beating team-mate Lewis Hamilton by just under half a second.

Nico Rosberg, Mercedes AMG F1 W07 Hybrid

Nico Rosberg, Mercedes AMG F1 W07 Hybrid

XPB Images

Nico Rosberg, Mercedes AMG F1 W07 Hybrid
Pascal Wehrlein, Manor Racing MRT05
Nico Rosberg, Mercedes AMG F1
Jolyon Palmer, Renault Sport F1 Team RS16
Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull Racing RB12
The burned car of Kevin Magnussen, Renault Sport F1 Team RS16
Felipe Massa, Williams FW38
Nico Hulkenberg, Sahara Force India F1 VJM09
Marcus Ericsson, Sauber C35
The burned car of Kevin Magnussen, Renault Sport F1 Team RS16
Carlos Sainz Jr., Scuderia Toro Rosso STR11
Esteban Ocon, Manor Racing MRT05

Rosberg emerged as the quickest early in the session with a 1m35.793s, before improving to a 1m35.227s with a run on the soft compound tyre at the mid-way point of the session.

He finished the session with a small off at Turn 11, but with no late improvements his earlier time stood.

Hamilton, who had been just 0.005s slower than Rosberg on the first run, failed to get the best out of his soft tyre run thanks to a lock-up at Turn 9.

With the two Mercedes spending the rest of the session on the medium tyre, Hamilton was only able to make small gains from his first run, ultimately falling 0.494s short of Rosberg’s benchmark time.

Hamilton was, however, still more than half a second clear of the Ferraris. Both Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel set their best times on softs early in the session, the Finn leading the German by a couple of hundredths.

Fernando Alonso made good use of the updated Honda engine, popping up in fifth fastest, 35 minutes from the end with a 1m36.510s. That time was more than a second better than Jenson Button’s best, although the Spaniard was on the soft tyre when he did his fastest lap, while Button stuck with the medium throughout.

Daniel Ricciardo won out in the battle of the Bulls, slipping past team-mate Max Verstappen with a little over half an hour to go. The pair wound up split by a couple of tenths in sixth and seventh.

Nico Hulkenberg and Sergio Perez were next in line, ahead of Button, who rounded out the Top 10.

The session got off to a dramatic start when Kevin Magnussen’s Renault caught fire on its way back into the pits after the installation run. Magnussen emerged from the burning car unharmed, but the fire took several minutes to extinguish thanks to fuel continuing to pour from the top of the engine cover.

The mishap led to the session being red-flagged for 15 minutes.

FP1 results:

PosDriverTeamEngineLapsTimeGap
1 Nico Rosberg Mercedes Mercedes 25 1'35.227  
2 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes Mercedes 25 1'35.721 0.494
3 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari Ferrari 16 1'36.315 1.088
4 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari Ferrari 18 1'36.331 1.104
5 Fernando Alonso McLaren Honda 18 1'36.510 1.283
6 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull TAG 27 1'36.753 1.526
7 Max Verstappen Red Bull TAG 26 1'36.973 1.746
8 Nico Hulkenberg Force India Mercedes 26 1'37.513 2.286
9 Sergio Perez Force India Mercedes 27 1'37.601 2.374
10 Jenson Button McLaren Honda 20 1'37.613 2.386
11 Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso Ferrari 29 1'37.847 2.620
12 Valtteri Bottas Williams Mercedes 17 1'37.861 2.634
13 Romain Grosjean Haas Ferrari 22 1'37.886 2.659
14 Esteban Gutierrez Haas Ferrari 20 1'37.921 2.694
15 Carlos Sainz Jr. Toro Rosso Ferrari 25 1'38.055 2.828
16 Felipe Nasr Sauber Ferrari 18 1'38.184 2.957
17 Marcus Ericsson Sauber Ferrari 20 1'38.313 3.086
18 Felipe Massa Williams Mercedes 24 1'38.339 3.112
19 Jolyon Palmer Renault Renault 23 1'39.148 3.921
20 Esteban Ocon Manor Mercedes 28 1'40.036 4.809
21 Pascal Wehrlein Manor Mercedes 26 1'40.627 5.400
22 Kevin Magnussen Renault Renault 2    

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