Rosberg leads Mercedes 1-2 as Vettel spins

(Mercedes AMG F1 Team)

Mercedes Nico Rosberg set the benchmark time in this morning's Free Practice One at the Red Bull Ring ahead of Sunday's Austrian Grand Prix. The German set a time of 1m 11.295s to finish the session 0.140s ahead of team mate Lewis Hamilton. Ferrari's Fernando Alonso was third fastest for Ferrari. It was a strong performance for the Williams Martini Racing Team as Felipe Massa finished the session in fourth place while Valterri Bottas was 8th.

Jenson Button put in a solid run for McLaren as the 2009 champion finished the session in 5th place just ahead of the Sahara Force India duo of Sergio Perez and Nico Hulkenberg who finished the morning session in 6th and 7th place respectively. 

Kevin Magnussen was 9th fastest making it eight Mercedes powered car's in the top ten. Toro Rosso's Jean Eric Vergne rounded out the top ten just ahead of Kimi Raikkonen in the second Ferrari. Daniil Kvyat, who has raced at the Red Bull Ring most recently of the current F1 driver's was 12th just ahead of Canadian Grand Prix race winner Daniel Ricciardo who finished the session in 13th place.

Esteban Gutierrez was 14th in the first of the Sauber's, finishing the session 1.4s off the pace set by Nico Rosberg. Reigning world champion Sebastian Vettel was down in 15th place in the second Red Bull. It wasn't the best of session's for the German as he had a spectacular spin coming out of the final turn and did extremely well to keep the RB10 out of the wall and as a result was able to continue the session.

It was a disappointing morning for the Lotus pair of Romain Grosjean and Pastor Maldonado as the finished the session in 16th and 17th place respectively. The Enstone outfit appear to be struggling once again with the handling of the E22. 

Jules Bianchi did a great job in the Marussia as the Frenchman was fastest of the 'young team's' and finished ahead of the Sauber of Adrian Sutil who had a hose failure on his Ferrari power unit which will necessitate an engine change for the German so it will be touch and go as to whether he will get track time in the second session this afternoon.

©Ben Johnston 2014