Friday’s session at Austria’s Red Bull ring was a mixed weather affair with an overcast sky occasionally letting out a few drops of rain however, the session was conducted entirely on dry tyres. The drivers struggled with the high speed/low grip nature of the circuit with a couple of spins and several lock ups. If the track continues to be this tricky the race on Sunday could be spectacular.
Mercedes began the session pounding round the track presumably to test the reliability of the new engine parts. Brit Lewis Hamilton was the first driver to hit double figures in term of laps, meanwhile his team mate didn’t enjoy the same luck. Rosberg, who was conducting an experiment with the latest idea to create artificial sparks flying off the car whilst at speed, which worked but is unnecessary, suffered an electronics failure causing a power loss. This caused Rosberg to miss around twenty minutes of the session whilst Mercedes fixed the issue.
Just before the Mercedes of Rosberg regained the ability to move, Ericsson’s Caterham lost it’s ability to move after suffering a complete electronics failure into turn one, causing a yellow flag whilst the marshals recovered the car.
With around 25 minutes to go Sebastian Vettel has a spectacular 720 degree spin on the start/finish straight after running wide around the last corner. Luck was however on Vettel’s side as he was extremely lucky to avoid the wall and a major rebuild. Ricciardo had a similar but somewhat less spectacular moment at the same corner running wide prompting a big slide across the track. The session wasn’t a good one for Red Bull with Daniel Ricciardo yet again the fastest of the two drivers but still 1.2 seconds off the Mercedes.
Adrian Sutil’s Sauber was taken apart during the session after just 9 laps with almost every major part (engine, floor, front and rear suspension) off the car leaving just the chassis. Sauber’s session was similar to how they be been all season in terms of lap times with Esteban Gutierrez the faster of the two setting a time which put him 14th fastest.
Ferrari were the best of the rest with Alonso 3rd fastest behind the two Mercedes setting a time of 1:11:606 just over 3 tenths slower than the Mercedes. Kimi was seven tenths off his team mate meaning yet another unspectacular session for both the Fin and Ferrari. Alonso can take some credit in the sense he was the only non-Mercedes powered car in the top 9.
McLaren brought a revised front wing to this weekends session. Jenson Button set a time good enough for fifth fastest just over half a second slower than the lead Mercedes. Kevin Magnussen was the lesser of the pair setting a time half a second slower than his team mate.
Toro Rosso struggled for grip with both drivers running wide running wide on several occasions. However, both Toro Rosso drivers were faster than the sister team Red Bull with Vergne 10th and Kyvat 12th.
Lotus struggled again with the car looking awful to drive with both drivers pushing but failing to make an impact. Both drivers ran wide several times into the gravel. and the fastest of the two, Grosjean was still over 1.8 seconds slower than the Mercedes.
Williams has a reasonably successful session being the second fastest of the Mercedes powered cars with Massa fourth, four tenths off the pace. Massa will be going to the Stewards this afternoon with Sergio Perez to have another look at the Montreal incident.
Marussia did a solid job with both drivers finishing ahead of the Caterham’s and ahead of Sutil’s Sauber. The drivers were separated by a tenth with Bianchi just on top.
Tune in for FP2 at 1PM.
| 1 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 1:11.295 | 19 | ||
| 2 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1:11.435 | 0.140 | 32 | |
| 3 | Fernando Alonso | Ferrari | 1:11.606 | 0.311 | 23 | |
| 4 | Felipe Massa | Williams | 1:11.756 | 0.461 | 27 | |
| 5 | Jenson Button | McLaren | 1:11.839 | 0.544 | 33 | |
| 6 | Sergio Perez | Force India | 1:12.009 | 0.714 | 33 | |
| 7 | Nico Hulkenberg | Force India | 1:12.072 | 0.777 | 20 | |
| 8 | Valtteri Bottas | Williams | 1:12.114 | 0.819 | 21 | |
| 9 | Kevin Magnussen | McLaren | 1:12.313 | 1.018 | 36 | |
| 10 | Jean-Eric Vergne | Toro Rosso | 1:12.364 | 1.069 | 30 | |
| 11 | Kimi Raikkonen | Ferrari | 1:12.365 | 1.070 | 21 | |
| 12 | Daniil Kvyat | Toro Rosso | 1:12.372 | 1.077 | 35 | |
| 13 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull | 1:12.570 | 1.275 | 28 | |
| 14 | Esteban Gutierrez | Sauber | 1:12.984 | 1.689 | 29 | |
| 15 | Sebastian Vettel | Red Bull | 1:12.988 | 1.693 | 25 | |
| 16 | Romain Grosjean | Lotus | 1:13.168 | 1.873 | 28 | |
| 17 | Pastor Maldonado | Lotus | 1:13.642 | 2.347 | 27 | |
| 18 | Jules Bianchi | Marussia | 1:13.738 | 2.443 | 26 | |
| 19 | Max Chilton | Marussia | 1:13.857 | 2.562 | 28 | |
| 20 | Kamui Kobayashi | Caterham | 1:14.611 | 3.316 | 24 | |
| 21 | Adrian Sutil | Sauber | 1:14.691 | 3.396 | 9 | |
| 22 | Marcus Ericsson | Caterham | 1:17.501 | 6.206 | 8 |
Results from planetsport.
