Nico Rosberg ended the first free-practice session of the Austrian Grand Prix ahead of Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel. That session was marked by a lot of spins and the circuit record beaten by both Mercedes cars as soon as FP1.
The track had been re-surfaced in the beginning of the year, and the three types of compounds available that week-end were ultra-softs, super-softs and softs.
Jolyon Palmer was the first driver to head out under a shining sun. Alfonso Celis Jr took over Sergio Perez in FP1. Max Verstappen set the first flying lap of the week-end in 1:10.099. Despite what had been announced, Sebastian Vettel did not test the Halo 2 system during the session.
Nico Rosberg set a first flying lap in 1:09.154 within 1:09.154, 30 minutes into the session before his teammate went faster. Romain Grosjean was the first driver to spin while trying to avoid Hamilton’s lose car at turn 4. Verstappen also lost a piece of his front wing on a kerb, the debris which remained on track until the mandatory Pirelli pit-stop window.
Marcus Ericsson, while trying to get back to the pits, missed the apex and almost hit a flat-out Daniel Ricciardo which caused him to be under investigation for crossing the pit-lane line. Before he came in the pits, Esteban Gutierrez’ Haas seemed to face power issues. Halfway through the session, Rosberg was ahead of his teammate and Ricciardo.
As soon as his first laptime in the second part of the session, Rosberg broke the circuit record held by Michael Schumacher since 2003 until then in 1:07.908. Just after improving again, Rosberg went in the gravel. Verstappen, after driving on the thick yellow kerbs again, broke his suspension and ended in the gravel at T6.
Rio Haryanto also spun in the third sector as his teammate was twelfth in the standings with twenty minutes to go, Pascal Wehrlein under investigation for failing to respect maximum speed under virtual safety car following Verstappen’s spin.
The end of the session was calm despite Ricciardo’s outing at T7 and Daniil Kvyat’s spin in the last lap.
Nico Rosberg ended the session on top ahead of Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel. Raikkonen, Ricciardo, Sainz, Massa, Verstappen, Kvyat and Bottas completed the top 10.