Rosberg fastest in the first free practice in Austria

Nico Rosberg set the fastest lap time in the first free practice of Formula 1 Austrian Grand Prix. Mercedes driver had a lap time 1:10.401 which was 0.308 seconds better than Lewis Hamilton’s time, while the third was Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen with a gap of 0.627 seconds.

Rosberg was superior in the first part of the session leaving Hamilton more than a second behind. Third best time after 45 minutes had Kimi Raikkonen followed by Daniil Kvyat and Felipe Nasr.

Red Bull announced that both drivers cars will take a new engines for this race, meaning a grid penalty for Sunday’s race. McLaren’s Fernando Alonso also due to take an engine penalty adding some more misery to the team’s disappointing season. Another problem from Spaniard was that engine stopped at turn 8, so he had to go in garage, but managed to get back in the last 20 minutes of the first free practice.

Ferrari also had a problem after Sebastian Vettel pulled off the track saying he has lost drive. German driver had to leave his machine after smoke was pouring from his front brakes and stayed in the garage until the end of the session with just four completed laps.

There were too much mistakes and almost every driver was battling to overcome turns 1 and 8 with many of them going off the track, but without any serious consequences, while Rosberg went off at turn 9.

Before the last thirty minutes Rosberg still held the best lap time, but Hamilton reduced the gap on just 0.3 seconds. Kvyat moved up to third with Raikkonen on fourth and Max Verstappen on fifth place, but in the last minutes of the mistakes-filled practice session Valtteri Bottas in Williams moved up to fourth and Felipe Nasr finished fifth.

Check the full results at SnapLap results page!