• German Grand Prix - FP1

Hamilton sets pace as Mercedes dominates

Chris Medland at the Nurburgring July 5, 2013
Lewis Hamilton was 0.2s clear of team-mate Nico Rosberg © Sutton Images
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Lewis Hamilton set the pace during FP1 for the German Grand Prix as Mercedes dominated the opening Friday session.

Hamilton and team-mate Nico Rosberg set an impressive pace from the start of the session and were the best part of a second clear of the rest of the field throughout. Mark Webber was third quickest ahead of Adrian Sutil, while Sebastian Vettel was only eighth and Fernando Alonso missed out on the session with an electrical problem.

There was no sign of any tyre issues during the session, with the FIA having given the teams a set of conditions they must adhere to when using the tyres following the Grand Prix Drivers' Association's threat to boycott the grand prix if there is a repeat of the problems seen at Silverstone.

Alonso's session was hit by reliability issues as his Ferrari came to a halt after just a handful of corners on his installation lap. Having recovered the car back to the garage and verified the stoppage was due to an electrical problem, Ferrari sent Alonso back out with 40 minutes of the session to run but he suffered the same issue and had to limp back to the pits as his session ended after less than two complete laps.

While Rosberg was running a Lotus-style drag reduction device (DRD) on his Mercedes, Kimi Raikkonen was fifth quickest but didn't run the DRD he had raced at Silverstone. Instead it was Romain Grosjean who continued to test the device for Lotus.

Behind the two Mercedes it was a close field as Webber in third to Paul di Resta in 11th place was covered by just 0.7s, with both McLaren's featuring inside the top ten.

Marussia gave Rodolfo Gonzalez a run in FP1 in place of Jules Bianchi but he ended the session in 21st place, 1.5s slower than Max Chilton in the other Marussia.

Chris Medland is assistant editor at ESPNF1

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Chris Medland is assistant editor at ESPNF1 Chris Medland, who in his youth even found the Pacific GPs entertaining, talked his way in to work at the British Grand Prix and was somehow retained for three years. He also worked on the BBC's F1 output prior to becoming assistant editor ahead of the 2011 season

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