Nico Rosberg outpaces Lewis Hamilton in FP1 at Spa

Updated 21/08/2015 at 09:53 GMT

Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg drew first blood in his battle with team-mate Lewis Hamilton as he claimed the honours in the opening practice session for the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa Francorchamps.

Nico Rosberg (Mercedes)

Image credit: AFP

Rosberg recovered from reliability issues to set the fastest time in a session marred by a crash for Pastor Maldonado.

The Mercedes driver reported a loss of drive early in the session and was confined to the pits for much of the opening 45 minutes, during which time Maldonado crashed exiting Turn 7 - Malmedy - sliding sideways across the track and hitting the tyre barrier on the inside of the circuit, damaging the right hand side of the car.

Following the red flag period, Rosberg was able to rejoin the action and promptly went fastest on his first flying lap, eventually ending top with a best time of 1:51.082. Rosberg's lap was good enough to put him 0.242s clear of team-mate Lewis Hamilton in what was a close session for the frontrunners.

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Daniel Ricciardo gave Red Bull an encouraging start to the weekend by setting the third fastest time, just 0.291s slower than Rosberg's benchmark. Kimi Raikkonen was fourth for Ferrari as less than 0.4s covered the top four despite the 7.004km length of the Spa-Francorchamps circuit.

Both Ferrari and Red Bull cars were inside the top six with Sebastian Vettel fifth and Daniil Kvyat sixth, ending the session as the only other drivers able to get within a second of Rosberg.

Toro Rosso was also strong in the opening session of the weekend as Max Verstappen finished seventh and team-mate Carlos Sainz eighth, just ahead of Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas. The rest of the midfield remained closely matched, with less than half a second covering Verstappen in seventh to Felipe Massa in 14th place.

McLaren didn't enjoy the smoothest of sessions with its updated Honda power unit, with both Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button spending large chunks of FP1 in the garage, completing just 29 laps between them. By contrast, Verstappen managed 27 laps alone. The two McLarens were also over two seconds adrift as Alonso ended the session 16th and Button 18th, with only Will Stevens and Roberto Merhi below the 2009 world champion.

A number of drivers got a little greedy exiting Malmedy, kicking up dirt on the outside of the corner, but Merhi was the only driver to swap ends during FP1 as he spun at Turn 18 in the final half hour of the session.

Reporting via F1i

FP1 RESULTS

1. Nico Rosberg (Germany) Mercedes 1:51.082

2. Lewis Hamilton (Britain) Mercedes 1:51.324

3. Daniel Ricciardo (Australia) RedBull - Renault 1:51.373

4. Kimi Raikkonen (Finland) Ferrari 1:51.478

5. Sebastian Vettel (Germany) Ferrari 1:51.866

6. Daniil Kvyat (Russia) RedBull - Renault 1:51.960

7. Max Verstappen (Netherlands) Toro Rosso - Renault 1:52.158

8. Carlos Sainz Jr (Spain) Toro Rosso - Renault 1:52.421

9. Sergio Perez (Mexico) Force India - Mercedes 1:52.423

10. Valtteri Bottas (Finland) Williams-Mercedes 1:52.511