Nico Rosberg set the quickest lap of opening practice for the German Grand Prix at Hockenheim, runing 0.3s than team-mate Lewis Hamilton, with Sebatian Vettel for Ferrari.

Rosberg set his fastest time of 1:15.517 on the supersoft tyre and while Hamilton as used the red banded Pirelli compound he couldn’t match the German and finished 0.326 down as the Mercedes pairing renewed hostilities following last weekend’s fractious Hungarian Grand Prix in which Hamilton took the lead of the Drivers’ Championship for the first time this season.

Vettel, meanwhile, finished the 90-minute outing over 1.1s behind Rosberg, with Kimi Raikkonen fourth ahead of the Red Bulls of max Verstappen in fifth place and Daniel Ricciardo in sixth. Verttel was 0.260s ahead of Dutchman Verstappen and almost half a second up on Ricciardo, who beat his former team-mate to the final podium spot last time out in Budapest.

The two-by-two nature of the session continued with McLaren’s Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button annexing seventh and eighth positions respectively, while the Toro Rosso pair of Daniil Kvyat and Carlos Sainz completed the top 10 order. All of the top 10 times were achieved on the supersoft tyres.

Further back Charles Leclerc enjoyed a positive morning for Haas, with the Monegasque racer finishing 17th, within 0.3s of regular Haas race Romain Grosjean. Over at Renault, Esteban Ocon stood in for Jolyon Palmer and he ended up just 0.048s slower than team-mate Kevin Magnussen. 

2016 German Grand Prix – Free Practice 1
1 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1:15.517 32
2 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:15.843 30
3 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 1:16.667 29
4 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 1:16.852 23
5 Max Verstappen Red Bull 1:16.927 29
6 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull 1:17.089 30
7 Fernando Alonso McLaren 1:17.183 18
8 Jenson Button McLaren 1:17.612 15
9 Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso 1:18.008 25
10 Carlos Sainz Toro Rosso 1:18.044 22
11 Marcus Ericsson Sauber 1:18.198 28
12 Valtteri Bottas Williams 1:18.210 37
13 Felipe Massa Williams 1:18.322 30
14 Romain Grosjean Haas 1:18.589 20
15 Nico Hulkenberg Force India 1:18.591 35
16 Sergio Perez Force India 1:18.628 29
17 Charles Leclerc Haas 1:18.882 32
18 Kevin Magnussen Renault 1:18.933 35
19 Felipe Nasr Sauber 1:18.961 22
20 Esteban Ocon Renault 1:18.981 30
21 Rio Haryanto Manor 1:19.167 34
22 Pascal Wehrlein Manor 1:19.975 33