Nico Rosberg tops the timesheets in FP1 in Austria

This morning in Austria, Nico Rosberg topped the timesheets in FP1 ahead of his team mate Lewis Hamilton and Kimi Raikkonen when Sebastian Vettel hit trouble on the track.

Before the start of the session, it was announced that Daniel Ricciardo and Daniil Kvyat will be taking a ten place grid penalty into the Red Bull's home race after deciding to both take their fifth engine of the season; when the spotlight is firmly on their engine supplier Renault who have struggled to catch up to their rivals Mercedes so far this season due to unreliability.

We also saw the McLaren-Honda team announce that Fernando Alonso has also had to take a penalty into this weekend. This is due to McLaren needing to change their Honda power unit for Alonso this weekend and have changed the Internal Combustion Engine, turbo charger and MGU-H on his car.

Because of this, Alonso has to drop twenty places on the grid; but it has not yet been announced if Alonso will receive a time penalty or a drive through penalty as a result of not being able to take the twenty place grid penalty he has received this weekend.

During the session, we saw Sebastian Vettel stopping on a run off area of the circuit with suspected brake and gearbox problems on his Ferrari which meant he had to stop taking part in the session while the Ferrari team tried to resolve the issues on the car before FP2.
Just shy of half an hour in the session, Felipe Massa had brief scare when he was released from the Williams pit box just as Ferrari team principal Maurizio Arrivabene crossed from the pitwall. Arrivabene jumped out of the way, while Massa stopped short of where the Ferrari boss had been, with the pair later sharing a joke about the moment.

But it was Nico Rosberg who topped the timesheets with a laptime of 1.10.401 ahead of Lewis Hamilton who finished in second place 0.308 seconds behind him but was ahead of Kimi Raikkonen in third place who was 0.627 seconds behind the Mercedes of Rosberg.
Valtteri Bottas finished the session in fourth place ahead of Felipe Nasr in fifth place and the two Red Bull drivers of Daniil Kvyat and Daniel Ricciardo who finished in sixth and seventh places. Max Verstappen had a great session and was eighth ahead of Felipe Massa in ninth place and Sergio Perez who rounded off the top ten finishers.

Carlos Sainz Jr ended the session in eleventh place ahead of Pastor Maldonado in twelfth place, Nico Hulkenberg in thirteenth place, Jolyon Palmer in fourteenth place and Marcus Ericsson in fifteenth place.

As we head into the latter stages of the grid, Jenson Button finished the session in sixteenth place ahead of his team mate Fernando Alonso in seventeenth place, ahead of the two Manor F1 drivers of Roberto Merhi and Will Stevens who finished the session in eighteenth and nineteenth places ahead of Sebastian Vettel who finished in last place.

The classification of FP1 for the Austrian GP is as follows:-

1. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes, 1.10.401
2. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, 0.308s
3. Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari, 0.627s
4. Valtteri Bottas, Williams-Mercedes, 1.051s
5. Felipe Nasr, Sauber-Ferrari, 1.232s
6. Daniil Kvyat, Red Bull-Renault, 1.241s
7. Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull-Renault, 1.323s
8. Max Verstappen, Toro Rosso, 2.045s
9. Felipe Massa, Williams-Mercedes, 1.489s
10. Sergio Perez, Force India-Mercedes, 1.504s
11. Carlos Sainz Jr, Toro Rosso, 1.547s
12. Pastor Maldonado, Lotus-Mercedes, 1.603s
13. Nico Hulkenberg, Force India-Mercedes, 1.630s
14. Jolyon Palmer, Lotus-Mercedes, 1.649s
15. Marcus Ericsson, Sauber-Ferrari, 1.758s
16. Jenson Button, McLaren-Honda, 2.519s
17. Fernando Alonso, McLaren-Honda, 2.871s
18. Will Stevens, Manor, 3.356s
19. Roberto Merhi, Manor, 5.058s
20. Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari, 5.283s

Sarah Jones- @jonesy_laaa