It’s rare for Formula One drivers to begin the battle with such enthusiasm on a Friday morning, but Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg were both keen to prove themselves better than the other from the very start of FP1. It was Hamilton who ended the session on top with a time of 1m37.428s, 0.3s clear of Rosberg.
It was a relatively uneventful session as the teams set about looking at the car set up and checking the upgrades they’ve brought to the track. What good the set up testing would be was up for debate, with the track temperature rising considerably from the start of the session to the end. The temperature was reflected in the times, as the cars got faster and faster as the ninety-minute session ran on.
FP1 might not be everybody’s most important session, but there were two drivers running who wanted to impress more than any other. Formula 3.5 driver Alfonso Celis Junior was running in the Force India car, replacing Sergio Perez for the session, whilst Jordon King was making his F1 debut, replacing Pascal Wehrlein in the Manor. It was a fairly quiet session for both third drivers. Celis Junior finshed the session seventeenth, far behind the other Force India driver, Nico Hulkenberg. King managed twentieth, actually faster than Manor’s regular driver Esteban Ocon.
There were few incidents throughout the session. Jolyon Palmer span twice in quick succession. The second time saw him hold up Sebastian Vettel, who was forced to lock up so he didn’t hit the back of the Renault car.
At the sharper end of the field, it was a clear battle between Rosberg and Hamilton for the top spot. The Mercedes duo’s first laps were on the super soft tyres, the softest compound brought to the track. Hamilton took first blood, faster than his team mate after the first sets of flying laps.
When they left the pits for a second outing, this time with the soft tyres strapped onto their cars, Rosberg jumped up to the top of the leaderboard as Hamilton made a mistake in the middle sector and was forced to abandon his lap.
It didn’t take long for Hamilton to bounce back though, his first complete flying lap putting him to the top of the timing sheet with a time nobody was able to beat for the rest of the session.
In the later stages of the session, the drivers got some Virtual Safety Car practice. Sebastian Vettel had taken an adventurous line at turn nineteen, bouncing over the kerbs and losing bodywork, his wing mirror hanging off after something from the front of his car knocked it. The VSC was deployed so marshals could retrieve the debris.
Marcus Ericsson and Jenson Button both saw problems in the session. Ericsson’s Sauber became stuck in first gear right at the start of the lap and the Swedish driver was stuck running at seventy kilometres an hour on the straight. Luckily for him, that was just before the VSC was deployed, so he didn’t lose too much session time as he pulled his Sauber around the track, but it was definitely something he would have preferred not to have to deal with.
Button’s problem wasn’t quite as damaging, but he was told to come back to the pits around five minutes before the end of the session.
Hamilton needs to find success on race day on Sunday to keep his championship hopes alive and, though FP1 doesn’t bring points to it, beating his team mate in the first session is certainly the best way to start the weekend.
