German F1 Grand Prix 2016 Qualifying: Results, Times from Friday's Practice
Mercedes' Nico Rosberg dominated both practice sessions at the German Grand Prix on Friday.
The home driver was comfortably ahead of his team-mate Lewis Hamilton in the afternoon, showing superior speed and race pace at the Hockenheim circuit. It was a similar story in the morning, as Rosberg produced a sizzling lap to pull clear of the field. Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel was third-fastest in both sessions.
Rosberg heads into his home race trailing Hamilton by six points after the world champion's win in Hungary last weekend.
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The drivers will have a final practice session on Saturday before qualifying begins for Sunday’s race. Here’s a look at how they’re shaping up at the end of an important day of preparations in Germany.
FP2 Recap
The results from the second practice session of the day were provided by the Renault Twitter feed:
After a decent morning session for the two Ferraris of Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen, they were two of the first drivers out on Friday afternoon.
The team have been performing well on race day all year, although they’ve not quite been up to the same standards in qualifying.
So perhaps that’s why Vettel adopted some different tactics to the rest of the field in this stanza, choosing to do some runs on the supersoft compound early in the session, with most drivers saving that particular tyre for later on.
As a result of the fast tyres he posted an impressive one minute, 16.208 seconds early in FP2, much quicker than his morning best. Meanwhile, Raikkonen was also lighting up the timesheets, per the Formula One Twitter feed:
A lot drivers were finding the Hockenheim circuit tough to master. Max Verstappen was one in the Red Bull, and as noted here by F1 reporter Tobi Gruner, Turn 1 had been particularly difficult for the youngster on Day 1:
Mercedes took over once their men were out on track, and as was the case in the morning, it seemed as though Rosberg had the edge on Hamilton.
The German did an impressive 20 laps on the supersoft tyre, showing quicker race pace than his team-mate. Indeed, Hamilton was unable to get close to Rosberg’s mark of 1:15.614, trailing the home-crowd favourite by 0.394 seconds.
As the Mercedes Twitter feed stated, Rosberg was in a class of his own on Friday:
With the session settled down, after that initial burst from Vettel, what was fascinating to see was Red Bull’s superior pace compared to Ferrari. On the longer stints, Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo were a lot sharper than the Scuderia, a dynamic that’ll be key as the weekend continues.
The signs are good for Rosberg on Day 1 of the grand prix weekend, as he seems to have greater pace than his team-mate in all areas of this familiar circuit. That should fill him with confidence ahead of a crucial few days in the season.
Hamilton, meanwhile, had the better of his team-mate in the critical instances at Hungary last weekend and will be hoping that when the pressure bites in the coming days, he will so once again.
FP1 Recap
Here are the provisional standings from the session courtesy of the Formula One Twitter feed:
Having been missed off the calendar last year, this was the first time in a while a lot of the drivers had a chance to drive around the Hockenheim circuit. So it was little surprise the early going was cagey.
Installation laps and testing on different compounds were the order of the day first up, although gradually times were set and a familiar order started to form.
McLaren’s garage seemed to be one of the most relaxed in the paddock early on, as they celebrated Fernando Alonso’s 35th birthday:
Things did begin to get serious quickly in Germany, though. There were some incidents to speak of, too, as Hamilton ran wide into the first corner while setting a provisional fastest lap; there was a spin for Valtteri Bottas, bringing yellow flags around the circuit, and Romain Grosjean darted into the gravel late on.
Rosberg seemed very keen to make an impression in front of his home crowd, especially with Hamilton at the top of the standings early on. Indeed, Rosberg posted a blistering 1:15.517 on the supersoft tyre to take the lead, a position he kept despite Hamilton’s own effort on the compound.
Although the German driver in the German-made Mercedes was the most popular man out on track, there were a few other local competitors.
Manor’s Pascal Wehrlein was one, and he was making his first-ever appearance in Formula One at this circuit, per the team Twitter feed:
Back at the front, Rosberg continued to look in immaculate form as the session wound down. As these numbers from the Formula One Twitter account show, he was dominant in all sectors as he finished FP1 with the quickest time:
Having endured a frustrating weekend in Hungary, it was important for Rosberg to begin the week well in Germany. So he’ll be contented to be fastest in the first session but well aware standards need to be kept high to keep Hamilton at bay.
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