Rosberg heads Mercedes one-two in first practice

2014 Belgian Grand Prix first practice

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The first practice session for the Belgian Grand Prix ran to its usual form with the two Mercedes drivers leading the way followed by Fernando Alonso’s Ferrari.

Nico Rosberg led the way by less than a tenth of a second from team mate Lewis Hamilton, with most of the difference between the two accounted for by the final chicane.

Alonso was two-tenths of a second slower in third place, a second ahead of team mate Kimi Raikkonen, whose session was briefly interrupted when his Energy Recovery System overheated.

Jenson Button split the two Ferraris in fourth place, and all bar one of the other Mercedes-powered cars joined him in the top ten.

The quickest of the two Red Bulls belonged to Daniel Ricciardo in ninth place. Team mate Sebastian Vettel’s session came to an early end due to an exhaust problem.

Andre Lotterer ended his first session for Caterham a tenth of a second quicker than team mate Marcus Ericsson, who had a spin at the La Source hairpin.

However while the session was going on it was revealed that Alexander Rossi would not being driving the Marussia again for the rest of the weekend as Max Chilton will reclaim his place at the team.

Pos.No.DriverCarBest lapGapLaps
16Nico RosbergMercedes1’51.57725
244Lewis HamiltonMercedes1’51.6740.09724
314Fernando AlonsoFerrari1’51.8050.22816
422Jenson ButtonMcLaren-Mercedes1’52.4040.82721
57Kimi RaikkonenFerrari1’52.8181.24117
611Sergio PerezForce India-Mercedes1’52.9031.32624
720Kevin MagnussenMcLaren-Mercedes1’52.9221.34523
827Nico HulkenbergForce India-Mercedes1’52.9371.36022
93Daniel RicciardoRed Bull-Renault1’52.9721.39519
1077Valtteri BottasWilliams-Mercedes1’53.1721.59520
111Sebastian VettelRed Bull-Renault1’53.3691.79211
1226Daniil KvyatToro Rosso-Renault1’53.5942.01721
138Romain GrosjeanLotus-Renault1’53.5972.02020
1499Adrian SutilSauber-Ferrari1’53.7032.12614
1519Felipe MassaWilliams-Mercedes1’53.9682.39120
1625Jean-Eric VergneToro Rosso-Renault1’54.1892.61220
1736Giedo van der GardeSauber-Ferrari1’54.3352.75816
1813Pastor MaldonadoLotus-Renault1’55.3363.75921
1917Jules BianchiMarussia-Ferrari1’55.7824.20519
2042Alexander RossiMarussia-Ferrari1’57.2325.65520
2145Andre LottererCaterham-Renault1’57.8866.30924
229Marcus EricssonCaterham-Renault1’57.9776.40024

Image © Daimler/Hoch Zwei

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Keith Collantine
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28 comments on “Rosberg heads Mercedes one-two in first practice”

  1. Changed my #1 entry in the prediction championship from Ham to Ros for now. Hamilton seems to struggle a bit. Obviously there is much running left to be done, but that supriced me a bit. Also both the Ferrari’s seem genuily quick. Sure, they normally run less fuel in P1&2 then others, and Williams were doing something else rather then hunting for quick times, but Ferrari were better then expected if you’d ask me. Also i more and more wonder what Ericsson is doing in F1..

    1. i didnt like that back tire of HAMs locking up, that is cause for concern.

    2. I didn’t watch practice but from past experience I know Lewis tends to out brake himself a lot in FP1 in an effort to find how late he can brake into a corner, therefore you will see a lot of lock ups and maybe slow times. He seems to be okay in FP2 though

  2. Caterhams are just dead slow. Did they bring their update to FP1? Or it just didn’t work? Maybe drivers are too slow?

      1. Maarten van Berge Henegouwen (@)
        22nd August 2014, 11:34

        looks much better!
        car #45 – Lotterer!

      2. Mr win or lose
        22nd August 2014, 11:37

        Wow! The car looks much better now.

  3. Nice going Andre Lotterer. 16 laps in a F1 car seems to be enough for him to top his teammate who’s had 11 races under his belt.

    Goes to show how good a driver he is. I am very impressed.

    1. Goes to show how good a driver he is

      Any just how terrible Ericsson is…

    2. It was announced that Andre will have updated nose of the car. Maybe that was the reason. Still with no experience it’s a great result. Did anybody saw the new nose of Caterham?

      1. Both drivers had updated nose in their cars.

        http://www.sutton-images.com/preview.asp?filename=dcd1422au90.jpg
        (sorry for the watermark)

    3. Apparently Ericssons engineers had messed up the set up of Ericssons car during FP1. The car had the wrong brake balance and the fuel pressure guage of Ericssons car gave 10% less boost than Lotterer, according to a Swedish journalist. Hopefully he can do a bit better in FP2

    4. Still betting on Ericcson for quali :P If he’s slower than Lotterer he should just leave F1 after this race …

      1. Why would you be ashamed at losing out to a 3-time Le Mans champion in qualifying?

  4. 1.51.5, that’s not too bad, though it’s hard to compare as FP1 was wet the last few years. I’m expecting to see a pole time not too far of the recent ones (except for 2013 of course, when it was rainy) if it stays dry.

  5. Wasn’t expecting to say this but Chilton back in the car doesn’t really sound like such a bad idea anymore, looking at how Bianchi absolutely destroyed Rossi in FP1.

    1. Maarten van Berge Henegouwen (@)
      22nd August 2014, 11:37

      maybe put Rossi in the Lotus – MAL is 1.8s behind GRO

    2. Can’t really compare as they were on different programs.

      One of them was running the lower downforce setup with the other running a higher downforce package. Not sure who was running what package though.

    3. It was his first time driving the Marussia, so I’m not really sure if it’s a fair comparison.

      Then again, meanwhile at Caterham…

  6. Ricciardo destroyed Vettel again.

    When will Red Bull realise that poor driver has no place in F1.

    1. Top notch conclusion you came to there

      1. Can’t agree more

    2. No…. This is a sarcastic comment. He supports Vettel AFAIK.

      1. I used to but I have seen the light. I have been enlightened.

        Everything Vettel has achieved so far has been through luck and having a car multiple seconds faster than any other car.
        Why Red Bull hired him I don’t understand.

        1. If Vettel is so poor a driver, I think Mark Webber should never have gotten into racing.

          1. I agree.

  7. Yet again Vettel’s Strong run of reliability issues continue

    1. Vettel probably broke his car on purpose to end tbe hummiliation.

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