Hamilton fastest as Wolff impresses in Germany

Lewis Hamilton edged team-mate and local hero Nico Rosberg to the fastest time in Friday practice for the German Grand Prix at Hockenheim.

The removal of front-to-rear interconnected suspension systems from all cars prior to the weekend failed to stop Mercedes scoring a one-two in both Friday sessions.

Hamilton proved just 0.024s quicker than world championship leader Rosberg in Practice 2, which the Briton had topped with a 1:18.34s effort.

Rosberg had earlier paced the opening session with a 1:19.13s best, proving 0.065s better than Hamilton.

Daniel Ricciardo ended the day best-of-the-rest, with his Red Bull a scant 0.10s from the ultimate pace.

Ricciardo had been fourth behind Rosberg, Hamilton and Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso earlier in the day.

The Australian later stressed that his ability to fight the Mercedes drivers this weekend will depend on whether or not the Silver Arrows have more speed in reserve.

“Unlike other Fridays I don’t think we have got half a second in the car,” he said.

“We have extracted pretty much all of it today, so let’s see.

“Hopefully that was the best Mercedes pace as well and then we can have a fight on our hands.”

Kimi Raikkonen continued Ferrari’s encouraging form in the second session, ending up fourth, albeit more than 0.5s away from the Mercedes runners.

Kevin Magnussen took his McLaren, complete with updated rear wing, to fifth in Practice 2 ahead of Felipe Massa (Williams), Jenson Button (McLaren), Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull), Fernando Alonso (Ferrari) and Valtteri Bottas (Williams).

For the second consecutive race weekend, Bottas had sat out Practice 1 to allow Williams test driver Susie Wolff laps aboard the FW36.

Having completed just four laps before engine failure at Silverstone, where she had become the first woman to drive an Formula 1 car in an official grand prix session in 22 years, the Scot’s run at Hockenheim got off to a shaky start as the car stopped on track during her first lap.

With the sensor issue resolved, Wolff went on to clock 22 laps, ending the session just 0.2s slower than team-mate Felipe Massa.

“It was tough at the beginning,” said Wolff, who ended the session 15th on the time sheets.

“But it was so nice to be out on track every lap, going quicker and getting more feel in the car.

“I’m just really happy to have completed a successful FP1 session.”

Practice 1

Pos	Driver	Team	Time/Retired	Gap	Laps
1	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1:19.131		29
2	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1:19.196	0.065	25
3	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	1:19.423	0.292	21
4	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull Racing-Renault	1:19.697	0.566	27
5	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	1:19.833	0.702	24
6	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull Racing-Renault	1:20.097	0.966	28
7	Kevin Magnussen	McLaren-Mercedes	1:20.105	0.974	32
8	Kimi Räikkönen	Ferrari	1:20.210	1.079	21
9	Daniil Kvyat	STR-Renault	1:20.337	1.206	28
10	Adrian Sutil	Sauber-Ferrari	1:20.505	1.374	18
11	Felipe Massa	Williams-Mercedes	1:20.542	1.411	19
12	Jean-Eric Vergne	STR-Renault	1:20.586	1.455	23
13	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India-Mercedes	1:20.592	1.461	22
14	Sergio Perez	Force India-Mercedes	1:20.598	1.467	24
15	Susie Wolff	Williams-Mercedes	1:20.769	1.638	22
16	Giedo van der Garde	Sauber-Ferrari	1:20.782	1.651	23
17	Romain Grosjean	Lotus-Renault	1:21.603	2.472	20
18	Pastor Maldonado	Lotus-Renault	1:21.854	2.723	30
19	Kamui Kobayashi	Caterham-Renault	1:22.572	3.441	31
20	Jules Bianchi	Marussia-Ferrari	1:22.982	3.851	24
21	Marcus Ericsson	Caterham-Renault	1:23.256	4.125	35
22	Max Chilton	Marussia-Ferrari	1:23.299	4.168	22

Practice 2

Pos	Driver	Team	Time/Retired	Gap	Laps
1	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1:18.341		38
2	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1:18.365	0.024	39
3	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull Racing-Renault	1:18.443	0.102	35
4	Kimi Räikkönen	Ferrari	1:18.887	0.546	38
5	Kevin Magnussen	McLaren-Mercedes	1:18.960	0.619	40
6	Felipe Massa	Williams-Mercedes	1:19.024	0.683	36
7	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	1:19.221	0.880	40
8	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull Racing-Renault	1:19.248	0.907	35
9	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	1:19.329	0.988	32
10	Valtteri Bottas	Williams-Mercedes	1:19.385	1.044	34
11	Adrian Sutil	Sauber-Ferrari	1:19.417	1.076	41
12	Daniil Kvyat	STR-Renault	1:19.452	1.111	27
13	Sergio Perez	Force India-Mercedes	1:19.581	1.240	28
14	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India-Mercedes	1:19.593	1.252	32
15	Jean-Eric Vergne	STR-Renault	1:19.760	1.419	32
16	Pastor Maldonado	Lotus-Renault	1:20.158	1.817	35
17	Romain Grosjean	Lotus-Renault	1:20.358	2.017	35
18	Esteban Gutierrez	Sauber-Ferrari	1:20.504	2.163	40
19	Jules Bianchi	Marussia-Ferrari	1:21.328	2.987	31
20	Marcus Ericsson	Caterham-Renault	1:21.870	3.529	21
21	Max Chilton	Marussia-Ferrari	1:21.898	3.557	28
22	Kamui Kobayashi	Caterham-Renault	1:23.728	5.387	12