F1-EL1: Rosberg and Mercedes in the lead at the Red Bull Ring

Despite a few drops of rain, the drivers were able to complete the laps on the Red Bull Ring which hosts the Austrian Grand Prix this weekend. Mercedes placed himself at the forefront despite cool conditions with a best time achieved by Nico Rosberg (1’11”295) who was a tenth ahead of his teammate Lewis Hamilton. The closest to the Silver Arrows is Fernando Alonso which follows three tenths on its Ferrari ahead of Felipe Massa and Jenson Button who is half a second behind.

The Force India also showed promising performances since Sergio Pérez and Nico Hulkenberg are seven tenths behind. Valtteri Bottas is the last driver less than a second from the reference time, Kevin Magnussen and Jean-Éric Vergne completing the top ten one second ahead of the Ferrari of Kimi Räikkönen. Toro Rosso seems to be in the mix since Daniil Kvyat occupies 12th place, but the leading Red Bull team is further behind with Daniel Ricciardo in 13th position and Sebastian Vettel in 15th place behind the Sauber of Esteban Gutiérrez.

The Lotuses still seem to be suffering on the Spielberg circuit. Romain Grosjean only finished the session in 16th place ahead of his teammate Pastor Maldonado. The Marussias follow the British single-seaters with Jules Bianchi in 18th position ahead of his teammate Max Chilton. Caterham completes the ranking after encountering a mechanical problem on Marcus Ericsson's CT05. Adrian Sutil was also unable to complete ten laps following a turbo problem.

The second free practice session for the Austrian Grand Prix will be contested from 14 p.m.