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German GP: Rosberg leads Hamilton in first practice

Nico Rosberg went fastest for Mercedes in first practice for the 2014 Formula 1 German Grand Prix at Hockenheim

Rosberg went 0.065s quicker than team-mate Lewis Hamilton. Ferrari's Fernando Alonso was best of the rest, 0.292s off Rosberg's pace.

The Mercedes pairing were among many to explore the track limits frequently as the drivers adjusted to life without the FRIC suspension systems that all teams have removed in advance of the weekend.

Sebastian Vettel was fastest on 1m20.295s in the busy first half-hour of session as several drivers made use of the extra set of soft tyres that have to be handed back to Pirelli at the 30-minute mark.

He improved that time during a multi-lap run later in the session, but by that time both Jenson Button and Daniel Ricciardo had gone even faster.

At that point Mercedes finally showed its hand as first Rosberg, then Hamilton, went half a second faster than their rivals, a gap only Alonso could partially bridge - and then only with a committed lap.

Hamilton was quickest of all in the first two sectors, but could not unite the two over the course of one lap, finishing on 1m19.196s to Rosberg's 1m19.131s.

Ferrari used the early part of the session to evaluate aero characteristics of Alonso's rear wing with flow-vis paint, but its programme was set back when Kimi Raikkonen had a water pump failure that took half an hour to resolve.

Raikkonen returned to the track but, in spite of completing a respectable number of laps, set a best time of 1m20.210 that was only eighth fastest overall.

McLaren sported a fresh look, with a new rear wing design featuring sophisticated detailing around the endplates, and a new race engineer for Jenson Button: Olympic rowing medallist Tom Stallard.

They had a reasonably encouraging session, Button completing 24 laps and Kevin Magnussen 32, finishing fifth and seventh quickest.

Williams tester Susie Wolff enjoyed a lengthier stint in the cockpit than she did at Silverstone, despite a scare in the opening minutes when her FW36 slowed with a sensor issue.

She closed out the session just two tenths of a second off the pace of Felipe Massa, well under the half-second benchmark the team had set.

There was a substantial gap between the runners at the bottom end of the timesheets as Lotus, Caterham and Marussia languished over two seconds off the pace.

Romain Grosjean had a rear wing failure that caused his DRS to stick open under braking in a high-speed section, while Max Chilton brought up the rear after a number of power unit problems.

Pos Driver                Team                   Time      Gap      Laps
 1. Nico Rosberg          Mercedes               1m19.131s           29
 2. Lewis Hamilton        Mercedes               1m19.196s  +0.065s  25
 3. Fernando Alonso       Ferrari                1m19.423s  +0.292s  21
 4. Daniel Ricciardo      Red Bull-Renault       1m19.697s  +0.566s  27
 5. Jenson Button         McLaren-Mercedes       1m19.833s  +0.702s  24
 6. Sebastian Vettel      Red Bull-Renault       1m20.097s  +0.966s  28
 7. Kevin Magnussen       McLaren-Mercedes       1m20.105s  +0.974s  32
 8. Kimi Raikkonen        Ferrari                1m20.210s  +1.079s  21
 9. Daniil Kvyat          Toro Rosso-Renault     1m20.337s  +1.206s  28
10. Adrian Sutil          Sauber-Ferrari         1m20.505s  +1.374s  18
11. Felipe Massa          Williams-Mercedes      1m20.542s  +1.411s  19
12. Jean-Eric Vergne      Toro Rosso-Renault     1m20.586s  +1.455s  23
13. Nico Hulkenberg       Force India-Mercedes   1m20.592s  +1.461s  22
14. Sergio Perez          Force India-Mercedes   1m20.598s  +1.467s  24
15. Susie Wolff           Williams-Mercedes      1m20.769s  +1.638s  22
16. Giedo van der Garde   Sauber-Ferrari         1m20.782s  +1.651s  23
17. Romain Grosjean       Lotus-Renault          1m21.603s  +2.472s  20
18. Pastor Maldonado      Lotus-Renault          1m21.854s  +2.723s  30
19. Kamui Kobayashi       Caterham-Renault       1m22.572s  +3.441s  31
20. Jules Bianchi         Marussia-Ferrari       1m22.982s  +3.851s  24
21. Marcus Ericsson       Caterham-Renault       1m23.256s  +4.125s  35
22. Max Chilton           Marussia-Ferrari       1m23.299s  +4.168s  22

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