Hamilton easily tops opening practice in Spain

Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes are making a mockery of their F1 competitors.

Lewis Hamilton was easily quickest for the opening Formula 1 practice session of the Spanish Grand Prix weekend to continue his domination of this year's boring F1 championship – with ugly cars, horrible sounding engines and no competition. Never has an F1 driver had such a superior car as Hamilton and Rosberg do this year.

The Mercedes driver finished 0.868s ahead of McLaren's Jenson Button, also with the superior Mercedes power. The rest may as well stay home. They have zero chance of winning in 2014.

Button held the fastest time for the majority of the Friday morning session until Hamilton set the fastest time five minutes from the end of the session with plenty to spare. Hamilton is playing with everyone.

There were problems for Sebastian Vettel, who sat out nearly the entire practice period after an electrical issue halted his running and he pulled to the side of the track at Turn 5, just 25 minutes into FP1.

The German had only completed four laps when the problem struck his car and he ended up with the 20th fastest time.

Nico Rosberg could only manage the fifth fastest time after he suffered a lack of running due to a problem with his Mercedes power unit.

Behind Button, Daniel Ricciardo was third fastest in his Red Bull ahead of Fernando Alonso, who was visibly hustling his Ferrari around the Spanish GP circuit.

His team-mate Kimi Raikkonen was sixth ahead of the second McLaren of Kevin Magnussen.

Results

Pos Driver Team Time Behind Laps
1 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:27.023s +0.000s 17
2 Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 1:27.891s +0.868s 26
3 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull-Renault 1:27.973s +0.950s 21
4 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1:28.128s +1.105s 23
5 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1:28.168s +1.145s 9
6 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 1:28.337s +1.314s 19
7 Kevin Magnussen McLaren-Mercedes 1:28.423s +1.400s 27
8 Pastor Maldonado Lotus-Renault 1:28.744s +1.721s 34
9 Sergio Perez Force India-Mercedes 1:28.779s +1.756s 18
10 Felipe Massa Williams-Mercedes 1:28.791s +1.768s 13
11 Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso-Renault 1:28.792s +1.769s 24
12 Nico Hulkenberg Force India-Mercedes 1:28.828s +1.805s 17
13 Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso-Renault 1:28.859s +1.836s 24
14 Felipe Nasr Williams-Mercedes 1:29.272s +2.249s 15
15 Adrian Sutil Sauber-Ferrari 1:29.688s +2.665s 16
16 Jules Bianchi Marussia-Ferrari 1:29.820s +2.797s 22
17 Romain Grosjean Lotus-Renault 1:29.444s +2.421s 21
18 Giedo van der Garde Sauber-Ferrari 1:30.440s +3.417s 21
19 Max Chilton Marussia-Ferrari 1:30.748s +3.725s 19
20 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1:30.942s +3.919s 4
21 Kamui Kobayashi Caterham-Renault 1:30.997s +3.974s 22
22 Marcus Ericsson Caterham-Renault 1:31.421s +4.398s 22