Nico Rosberg drew first blood in the German Grand Prix weekend by topping the opening Friday practice session, as Mercedes set stunning pace once again.
In a meeting which so far he has been under fire for setting his pole position time in Hungary last weekend under double-waved yellow flags, and the following day he lost his long-held championship lead to his team-mate Lewis Hamilton, Rosberg struck back in fine style by being clearly quickest in opening Hockenheim practice.
Hamilton topped the times early with a 1m17.947, and Daniel Ricciardo and both Ferraris of Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen each had spells at the top too – the Italian cars running on supersoft tyres early. But 18 minutes into the session Rosberg seized top spot with a 1m17.126 time, then quickly went even faster with a 1m17.030, upwards of three tenths quicker than Vettel next up at that point.
Rosberg then just under 50 minutes into the session stunned everyone with a 1m15.517 mark on the supersoft tyres, which was around a second quicker than his pole position time from the previous Hockenheim visit in 2014. Hamilton responded a few minutes later but his best was 0.326 seconds shy of Rosberg's.
Vettel was best of the rest, but his quickest time was 1.150 secs shy of Rosberg's. He was followed by his team mate Raikkonen in P4, who was 1.335 secs off the top. The two Red Bulls were next up, Max Verstappen's mark was just over a tenth quicker than Ricciardo's and under a tenth away from that of Raikkonen's Ferrari.
It was an encouraging session for McLaren, as the Woking pair were next up. Fernando Alonso in P7 had a best under a tenth off Ricciardo's and 1.666 secs off the top. Jenson Button in P8 was two seconds off.
The team-by-team formation continued as the two Toro Rossos were ninth and tenth, Daniil Kvyat ahead, while Marcus Ericsson in the Sauber showed up well by finishing up in P11.
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