Hamilton tops the times in first practice

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F1 Grand Prix, GP Spain, Circuit de Catalunyaes

Lewis Hamilton topped the times as running commenced at Circuit de Catalunya in preparation of Sunday's Spanish Grand Prix. Jenson Button was second fastest, a distant 8 tenths off the pace.

Early in the session, Sebastian Vettel stopped on track following an eletrical issue on his car. The German does have a new RB10 chassis this weekend and had high hopes of improving his form, but the team's inability to get him back on track during the remainder of FP1 is an immediate setback for the reigning champion.

At Sahara Force India, Sergio Pérez was nearly hit by his own left rear view mirror. As the piece broke off, the Mexican grabbed it and returned it to the pits. The event caused for an interesting image with Pérez driving his car singlehandedly while holding the mirror in his other hand.

Moment later, Giedo van der Garde ended up in the gravel and just nearly missed the tyre wall following a brake failure on his Sauber C33.

Jenson Button headed the timesheets for most of the session until Lewis Hamilton improved on that in the final minutes, easily improving the McLaren driver by more than 8 tenths. His team mate at Mercedes AMG, Nico Rosberg sat in the garage and watched along as his mechanics attempted to solve a cooling issue on his W05.

Results

Pos.No.DriverTeamTimeGapLaps
144Lewis HamiltonMercedes1:27.023-17
222Jenson ButtonMcLaren-Mercedes1:27.8910.86826
33Daniel RicciardoRed Bull Racing-Renault1:27.9730.95021
414Fernando AlonsoFerrari1:28.1281.10523
56Nico RosbergMercedes1:28.1681.1459
67Kimi RäikkönenFerrari1:28.3371.31419
720Kevin MagnussenMcLaren-Mercedes1:28.4231.40027
813Pastor MaldonadoLotus-Renault1:28.7441.72134
911Sergio PerezForce India-Mercedes1:28.7791.75618
1019Felipe MassaWilliams-Mercedes1:28.7911.76813
1126Daniil KvyatStr-Renault1:28.7921.76924
1227Nico HulkenbergForce India-Mercedes1:28.8281.80517
1325Jean-Eric VergneStr-Renault1:28.8591.83624
1440Felipe NasrWilliams-Mercedes1:29.2722.24915
1599Adrian SutilSauber-Ferrari1:29.6882.66516
1617Jules BianchiMarussia-Ferrari1:29.8202.79722
178Romain GrosjeanLotus-Renault1:29.9442.92121
1836Giedo van der GardeSauber-Ferrari1:30.4403.41722
194Max ChiltonMarussia-Ferrari1:30.7483.72519
201Sebastian VettelRed Bull Racing-Renault1:30.9423.9194
2110Kamui KobayashiCaterham-Renault1:30.9973.97422
229Marcus EricssonCaterham-Renault1:31.4214.39822