European Grand Prix 2016 Qualifying: Results, Times from Friday's F1 Practice

Mercedes clocked the fastest times in practice ahead of Sunday's European Grand Prix, where Lewis Hamilton was quickest around the Baku track, although team-mate Nico Rosberg wasn't far behind.

The German finished the session just 0.7 seconds slower than his fierce rival, but the biggest storyline of the day saw Rosberg withdraw 20 minutes early after reporting problems with his car.

Ferrari drivers Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen each also experienced faults toward the end of the second practice session, finishing eighth and 12th, respectively.

The drivers had their first chance to drive around the new city circuit in Baku, Azerbaijan, which is making its Formula One debut this weekend. Continue for a recap of how they fared.

You can find a breakdown of the qualifying times in full via the official Formula 1 website.

FP2 Recap

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It was difficult to divert away from Mercedes' domination of the field on Friday, irrespective of the fact Rosberg's early withdrawal from the track has seeded some concerns heading into this weekend's schedule.

That was largely thanks to Hamilton's performance in Baku, where he also made sure to test out a variety of tyres in new territory, per the official Formula 1 Twitter account:

The official Mercedes Twitter account even suggested the cause of Rosberg's early departure remained a mystery when practice came to an end:

As a result, only Sauber driver Marcus Ericsson (22) racked up a lower lap total than Rosberg (26), who will need to find out the root of his concerns before Saturday's qualifying session.

Meanwhile, Sergio Perez impressed after claiming P3 for Force India, while Nico Hulkenberg's fastest time of 1:45.920 was enough to clinch P3, and the team was unsurprisingly happy with their results:

Williams' Valtteri Bottas was also among the list of names who capitalised upon Ferrari's woes to steal a fourth-place finish in Azerbaijan, as did Toro Rosso driver Carlos Sainz, who claimed P6.

According to ESPN F1, Ferrari's Vettel wasn't impressed at all with the performance of McLaren's Fernando Alonso:

That being said, Vettel did still manage to get 36 laps under his belt while team-mate Raikkonen registered only four fewer than that (32).

Red Bull also battled through some issues and couldn't finish as high as they would have liked, with Max Verstappen ending the session seventh fastest, while Daniel Ricciardo took P10 with a time of 1:46.293.

FP1 Recap

Here are the final standings for the morning's free practice session, per Formula One's official Twitter feed:

The session began somewhat tentatively as the drivers, largely sporting either medium or soft tyres, got the feel for the new circuit—after 20 minutes, only 10 out of 22 had set a time.

As McLaren's team noted on Twitter, information gathering was the order of the day:

The team had a successful outing with Fernando Alonso finishing fourth and Jenson Button seventh fastest.

The first driver to set a time was Rosberg, per F1:

Of course, that lap was quickly surpassed, with the German himself shaving around six seconds off it within five minutes.

There were also some early stumbles for Daniil Kvyat and Esteban Gutierrez:

Indeed, the pair struggled to compete with the times set by their colleagues, finishing 17th and 14th, respectively. Meanwhile, the yellow flags were deployed on no less than 11 occasions overall with Daniel Ricciardo proving to be the first driver to collide with the barriers, prompting the red flag to come out.

Pirelli Motorsport also commented on the issues the drivers faced between the track and the weather:

As the drivers became more confident around the circuit, their lap times duly got quicker and quicker.

Despite a tyre issue cutting his morning short, Hamilton eventually topped the classification with a time of one minute, 46.435 seconds with Rosberg and the impressive Valtteri Bottas close behind.

The track is still new, but teams will continue to learn about it throughout practice and qualifying. By the time the race itself rolls around on Sunday, expect them to have a much better understanding of the circuit.