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German Grand Prix practice: Ricciardo edges Hamilton in FP1

Daniel Ricciardo set the pace in the opening Formula 1 free practice session for the German Grand Prix on Friday morning

The Red Bull driver set a time just 0.004s quicker than the Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton, and Max Verstappen was third fastest in the second Red Bull, ahead of Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel who was only 0.271 off Ricciardo's fastest time.

Valtteri Bottas finished the session in fifth place on the morning when it was revealed he'll continue with Mercedes for another season. Kimi Raikkonen rounded out the top six in his Ferrari.

Despite having the quickest time, it's set to be a challenging weekend for Ricciardo who has been hit with a series of grid penalties.

In this session, he took his third MGU-K, which has triggered a 10-place penalty for Sunday, while a third energy store added five more and a third control electronics a further five - meaning he'll start from the back of the grid.

Held in warm sunshine, Friday's morning's 90-minute session was a chance for teams to familiarise themselves with the medium, soft and ultrasoft tyres on the 2.8-mile Hockenheim circuit for the first time since 2016.

The two Haas machines of Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen finished seventh and eighth, while Sauber's Charles Leclerc was ninth, one place ahead of Nico Hulkenberg.

The German had a moment off-track at the high-speed Turn 12, running over the gravel, but emerged unscathed and with just under five minutes of practice remaining, he was branded an "amateur" by Fernando Alonso on the team radio, after he felt the Renault delayed his progress in Turn 2.

Two race drivers made way to test drivers, with Antonio Giovinazzi in place of Marcus Ericssson at Sauber going 19th fastest, and Nicholas Latifi 17th after taking over Esteban Ocon's seat at Force India.

Giovinazzi's running was slightly truncated under half an hour into the session, as he departed the pitlane and the engine cover flew off the rear of his Sauber. He returned to the pits on the following lap with the Ferrari power unit exposed.

Early in practice, Pierre Gasly was complaining of steering issues with his Toro Rosso and ran wide at Turn 12, breaking a piece of bodywork on the exit kerb. On the radio he said his car felt "really strange."

Running at McLaren was limited as the cars of Fernando Alonso and Stoffel Vandoorne spent the majority of FP1 in the garage with set-up work being performed on their cars. Vandoorne completed 14 laps while Alonso just 13.

FP1 times

Pos Driver Car Time Gap Laps
1 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull/Renault 1m13.525s - 22
2 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1m13.529s 0.004s 29
3 Max Verstappen Red Bull/Renault 1m13.714s 0.189s 34
4 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 1m13.796s 0.271s 23
5 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 1m13.903s 0.378s 30
6 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 1m14.267s 0.742s 24
7 Romain Grosjean Haas/Ferrari 1m14.691s 1.166s 29
8 Kevin Magnussen Haas/Ferrari 1m14.853s 1.328s 28
9 Charles Leclerc Sauber/Ferrari 1m15.097s 1.572s 25
10 Nico Hulkenberg Renault 1m15.282s 1.757s 32
11 Sergio Perez Force India/Mercedes 1m15.415s 1.890s 29
12 Fernando Alonso McLaren/Renault 1m15.544s 2.019s 13
13 Lance Stroll Williams/Mercedes 1m15.629s 2.104s 32
14 Carlos Sainz Jr. Renault 1m15.769s 2.244s 10
15 Brendon Hartley Toro Rosso/Honda 1m15.864s 2.339s 36
16 Sergey Sirotkin Williams/Mercedes 1m15.876s 2.351s 34
17 Nicholas Latifi Force India/Mercedes 1m16.023s 2.498s 27
18 Pierre Gasly Toro Rosso/Honda 1m16.071s 2.546s 32
19 Antonio Giovinazzi Sauber/Ferrari 1m16.136s 2.611s 23
20 Stoffel Vandoorne McLaren/Renault 1m16.149s 2.624s 14


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