Posted on 8th May 2015
This morning or the afternoon in Barcelona, Nico Rosberg topped the timesheets at the first practice session in FP1 since the Malaysian Grand Prix ahead of his team mate Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari driver Sebastian Vettel.
In the first hour of the session, Sauber Test Driver Rafaelle Maricello ran off the circuit after touching the white line at Turn 9 after getting a touch of oversteer out of his car, but was able to continue after recovering over the astro turf. Also, Sergio Perez runs off the track at Turn 4 but he was able to rejoin the circuit and did not have any damage to his car.
In the last 30 minutes of the session, Nico Rosberg entered the pitlane in the wrong way. The regulations state that a driver must enter the pitlane on the right hand side of the bollard only. Rosberg at the end of one of his flying laps entered from the left hand side of the bollard and could face a penalty or a reprimand from the stewards or the FIA regarding this matter after the investigation that is taking place.
At the end of the session, Fernando Alonso spun his McLaren-Honda MP4-30 coming out of Turn 12 but didn't do any damage to his car and headed back to the pits.
But it was Nico Rosberg who topped the timesheets with a laptime of 1.26.828 ahead of his team mate Lewis Hamilton in second place who was 0.070 seconds off his pace but was ahead of Sebastian Vettel in third place who was 0.9 seconds off the pace of Rosberg.
Vettel's team mate Kimi Raikkonen ended the session in fourth place ahead of the Toro Rosso drivers of Carlos Sainz Jr and Max Verstappen who ended the session in fifth and sixth places. The Toro Rosso drivers finished ahead of Danill Kvyat who finished the session in seventh place ahead of Felipe Massa in eighth place, his team mate Daniel Ricciardo in ninth place and Felipe Nasr who rounded off the top ten finishers of the session.
Nico Hulkenberg ended the session in eleventh place ahead of Sauber Test driver Raffaele Marciello who substituted for Marcus Ericsson for this session in twelfth place ahead of Lotus Test driver Jolyon Palmer who substituted for Romain Grosjean in FP1 ended the session in thirteenth place.
Williams Development driver Susie Wolff who substituted for Valtteri Bottas during this session finished the session in fourteenth place ahead of McLaren-Honda drivers of Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button in fifteenth place and sixteenth places.
As we head into the latter stages of the grid, Sergio Perez ended the session in seventeenth place ahead of the Lotus of Pastor Maldonado in eighteenth place and the two Manor F1 drivers of Will Stevens and Roberto Merhi who ended the session in nineteenth and twentieth places.
The classification of FP1 for the Spanish GP is as follows:-
1. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes, 1.26.828
2. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, 0.070s
3. Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari, 0.978s
4. Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari, 1.024s
5. Carlos Sainz Jr, Toro Rosso, 1.304s
6. Max Verstappen, Toro Rosso, 1.701s
7. Daniil Kvyat, Red Bull-Renault, 1.957s
8. Felipe Massa, Williams-Mercedes, 2.003s
9. Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull-Renault, 2.247s
10. Felipe Nasr, Sauber-Ferrari, 2.312s
11. Nico Hulkenberg, Force India-Mercedes, 2.581s
12. Raffaele Marciello, Sauber-Ferrari, 2.802s
13. Jolyon Palmer, Lotus-Mercedes, 2.848s
14. Susie Wolff, Williams-Mercedes, 2.880s
15. Fernando Alonso, McLaren-Honda, 2.985s
16. Jenson Button, McLaren-Honda, 2.989s
17. Sergio Perez, Force India-Mercedes, 3.268s
18. Pastor Maldonado, Lotus-Mercedes, 3.282s
19. Will Stevens, Manor-Marussia, 5.043s
20. Roberto Merhi, Manor-Marussia, 5.819s
Sarah Jones- @jonesy_laaa
