The Mercedes pair were on top as usual in an uneventful first practice session at the Hockenheimring.
The competition was over a second behind despite every driver in the top ten using super-soft tyres to set their best time. Sebastian Vettel was 1.1 seconds adrift, followed by team mate Kimi Raikkonen.
The Ferrari drivers caused some consternation among their rivals by holding them up at various points. A furious Romain Grosjean accused Vettel of impeding him twice, and Fernando Alonso suggested on the radio “we need to make a new circuit for the Ferraris”.
The McLaren driver ended up seventh quickest, the Red Bulls separating him from his former team. With Button eighth ahead of the two Toro Rossos, the top ten was sorted neatly two-by-two.
Grosjean had a spin late in the session at turn ten and finished in 14th place. Charles Leclerc took over the second Haas from Esteban Gutierrez in this session.
The only other test driver in action was Esteban Ocon, who took over Jolyon Palmer’s Renault, but had to pit after reporting a power steering problem.
First practice visual gaps
Nico Rosberg – 1’15.517
+0.326 Lewis Hamilton – 1’15.843
+1.150 Sebastian Vettel – 1’16.667
+1.335 Kimi Raikkonen – 1’16.852
+1.410 Max Verstappen – 1’16.927
+1.572 Daniel Ricciardo – 1’17.089
+1.666 Fernando Alonso – 1’17.183
+2.491 Daniil Kvyat – 1’18.008
+2.527 Carlos Sainz Jnr – 1’18.044
+2.681 Marcus Ericsson – 1’18.198
+2.693 Valtteri Bottas – 1’18.210
+2.805 Felipe Massa – 1’18.322
+3.072 Romain Grosjean – 1’18.589
+3.074 Nico Hulkenberg – 1’18.591
+3.111 Sergio Perez – 1’18.628
+3.365 Charles Leclerc – 1’18.882
+3.416 Kevin Magnussen – 1’18.933
+3.444 Felipe Nasr – 1’18.961
+3.464 Esteban Ocon – 1’18.981
+3.650 Rio Haryanto – 1’19.167
+4.458 Pascal Wehrlein – 1’19.975
Drivers more then ten seconds off the pace omitted.
2016 German Grand Prix
- Ricciardo grabs third Driver of the Weekend win of 2016
- F1 went into the summer break on a low
- 2016 German Grand Prix team radio transcript
- Top ten pictures from the 2016 German Grand Prix
- 2016 German Grand Prix Predictions Championship results
mog
29th July 2016, 10:55
Be interesting to see if McLaren can carry pace through the weekend
Deej92 (@deej92)
29th July 2016, 12:30
I wonder if McLaren are genuinely becoming the ‘best of the rest’ behind the top 3 teams. Williams are certainly no longer that going on recent events.
Chrysostomos (@ccharisis)
29th July 2016, 11:09
After destroying Q3 in Austria Alonso shouldn’t talk and concentrate on his driving. According to his saying, he drives the second fastest car on the grid although in the races his is lapped even from the P6 driver. So I guess he has to improve his driving skills.
GeeMac (@geemac)
29th July 2016, 11:09
Another 7th for Alonso…
abashrawi
29th July 2016, 11:46
So he went from consistent 5th at Ferrari to consistent 7th at McLaren.
Martin
29th July 2016, 12:47
6 consecutive sessions of finishing in the same position. I wonder what the longest streak is for that.
Christopher Rehn (@chrischrill)
29th July 2016, 11:12
Surprisingly strong Sauber showing, with Marcus Ericsson in P11 despite running the same engine he had in Australia (!) during the Friday session. Let’s hope for a dry qualifying, so that he doesn’t crash again…
MEGATRON
29th July 2016, 11:20
Ericsson Unusually high, Haryanto showing well ahead of WER.
1.15s From 1st Merc to 2nd Ferrari
2.5s from Ferrari(2nd) to Manor(11th & last)
… astonishing pace from he Mercs
evered7 (@evered7)
29th July 2016, 11:37
Ferrari will be running the old engines in FP. They are on 4 engines already. So expect the gap to reduce a little come qualifying.
petebaldwin (@)
29th July 2016, 11:40
Although to be fair, Hamilton will everything turned down to 0.00001 to protect his engine as well. We all know they have another 1s in engine performance if they choose to use it.
MEGATRON
29th July 2016, 11:55
Everybody is running old engines turned down.
NewDust
29th July 2016, 11:20
Fernando Alonso continuing his 7th streak.
Tricky (@tricky)
29th July 2016, 12:27
There really is an ever widening gap between Mercedes and its customer teams. At Silverstone the fastest Q time of a Mercedes was 2.1s quicker than Williams – that is quite some margin, especially if the engines (and software) are the same on all cars.
Alec Glen (@alec-glen)
29th July 2016, 13:37
Will only get worse next year when engine development’s opened up…
Gary
29th July 2016, 12:40
Why is Pascal Wehrlein so highly rated by Mercedes? I mean let’s be clear, Mercedes can have any aspiring F1 driver (or world champion) it desires in their garage. It’s within that context I ask the question. I’m sure WEH is a good racer, but he is not dominating HAR, not even close.
Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
29th July 2016, 13:21
Remember Pascal wasn’t racing formula cars recently before his switch to F1. And he barely knows any circuit F1 visits…
But yeah… I was also expecting him to put a bigger difference between himself and Rio.
Alec Glen (@alec-glen)
29th July 2016, 13:41
I think it’s fair to say Pascal’s leaving Rio for dust on Sundays, different game to Fri/Sat though where that car struggles with tyre warmup particularly getting the one lap pace in.
sato113 (@sato113)
29th July 2016, 12:47
‘the top ten was sorted nearly two-by-two’
@keithcollantine I think you mean ‘neatly’ ;)