Japanese GP: Rosberg tops Hamilton in opening practice

Nico Rosberg

As expected the two Mercedes drivers were fastest in opening practice for the Japanese GP. Just 0.151s separates the Mercedes drivers at the top of the order. 3rd placed Fernando Alonso was 0.576s back and the only other driver within one second of the dominate Mercedes. Valtteri Bottas was 1.115s back in fourth.

Alonso's Ferrari teammate Kimi Raikkonen went fifth fastest while McLaren's Kevin Magnussen rounded out the top six.

The sensation of the session was just turned 17-year old Max Verstappen who was 12th for Toro Rosso until his lemon Renault engine spilled its guts all over the track. He looked pretty happy with his first taste of track action on an F1 weekend.

Results

Pos	Driver	Car	Time	Behind	Laps
1	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes/Mercedes	1m35.461s	0.000s	27
2	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes/Mercedes	1m35.612s	0.151s	26
3	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari/Ferrari	1m36.037s	0.576s	19
4	Valtteri Bottas	Williams/Mercedes	1m36.576s	1.115s	25
5	Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari/Ferrari	1m37.187s	1.726s	19
6	Kevin Magnussen	McLaren/Mercedes	1m37.327s	1.866s	24
7	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull/Renault	1m37.466s	2.005s	27
8	Jenson Button	McLaren/Mercedes	1m37.649s	2.188s	24
9	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull/Renault	1m37.686s	2.225s	26
10	Daniil Kvyat	Toro Rosso/Renault	1m37.714s	2.253s	26
11	Felipe Massa	Williams/Mercedes	1m38.012s	2.551s	22
12	Max Verstappen	Toro Rosso/Renault	1m38.157s	2.696s	22
13	Sergio Perez	Force India/Mercedes	1m38.324s	2.863s	10
14	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India/Mercedes	1m38.582s	3.121s	9
15	Romain Grosjean	Lotus/Renault	1m38.851s	3.390s	21
16	Adrian Sutil	Sauber/Ferrari	1m39.046s	3.585s	19
17	Pastor Maldonado	Lotus/Renault	1m39.097s	3.636s	26
18	Esteban Gutierrez	Sauber/Ferrari	1m39.318s	3.857s	18
19	Marcus Ericsson	Caterham/Renault	1m40.031s	4.570s	18
20	Roberto Merhi	Caterham/Renault	1m41.472s	6.011s	24
21	Jules Bianchi	Marussia/Ferrari	1m41.580s	6.119s	10
22	Max Chilton	Marussia/Ferrari	1m41.757s	6.296s	15