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
XPB Images
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:
Pos | Driver | Team | Engine | Laps | Time | Gap |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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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