But the 27-year-old Briton managed 20 laps and himself was half a second
quicker than his nearest rival in Red Bull’s Mark Webber, who was the only
other driver to finish within a second of Rosberg.
Behind the Australian was his Red Bull team-mate and reigning three-times
champion Sebastian Vettel, the 25-year-old German 1.225sec behind compatriot
Rosberg.
Ferrari pair Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa were fifth and seventh on the
timesheet, either side of McLaren’s Jenson Button.
The Woking-based marque have worked tirelessly over the past two weeks to
rectify the faults on a car that started abysmally off the pace in
Australia, and to a lesser extent in Malaysia.
Button was only 1.352sec back but team-mate Sergio Perez was a lowly 16th, and
twice as far adrift as the more experienced Briton.
Perez did himself no favours either with a run into a gravel trap at the end
of the session, bumping a tyre wall with his front wing.
Behind Button, Force India again appear strong as Adrian Sutil and Paul Di
Resta were eighth and 10th quickest, sandwiching Romain Grosjean in his
Lotus.
The Silverstone-based marque will be hoping to have rectified the captive
wheelnut issue that forced both Sutil and Di Resta into retirement in
Malaysia when another double points finish was on the cards, having started
the campaign in that fashion in Australia.
The duo were split by four tenths of a second, with Di Resta 1.844sec down
with the second Lotus of Kimi Raikkonen behind him, the Finn having taken an
early spin.
Further down the field Max Chilton finished ahead of both Caterhams in 20th,
and less than a tenth of a second behind team-mate Jules Bianchi, who has
been highly impressive so far this season.
Giedo van der Garde was 21st, whilst Caterham reserve Ma Qing Hua – replacing
Charles Pic for FP1 only and in front of his home fans for the first time in
F1 – propped up the field, finishing 1.5sec down on his team-mate and
6.8secs off Rosberg.
First Practice: 1 Nico Rosberg (Ger) Mercedes-Mercedes 1mins
36.717secs, 2 Lewis Hamilton (Gbr) Mercedes-Mercedes 1:37.171, 3 Mark Webber
(Aus) Red Bull-Renault 1:37.658, 4 Sebastian Vettel (Ger) Red Bull-Renault
1:37.942, 5 Fernando Alonso (Spa) Ferrari-Ferrari 1:37.965, 6 Jenson Button
(Gbr) McLaren-Mercedes 1:38.069, 7 Felipe Massa (Bra) Ferrari-Ferrari
1:38.095, 8 Adrian Sutil (Ger) Force India-Mercedes 1:38.125, 9 Romain
Grosjean (Fra) Lotus-Renault 1:38.398, 10 Paul di Resta (Gbr) Force
India-Mercedes 1:38.561, 11 Kimi Raikkonen (Fin) Lotus-Renault 1:38.790, 12
Jean-Eric Vergne (Fra) Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:39.057, 13 Pastor Maldonado
(Ven) Williams-Renault 1:39.158, 14 Nico Hulkenberg (Ger) Sauber-Ferrari
1:39.180, 15 Daniel Ricciardo (Aus) Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:39.336, 16 Sergio
Perez (Mex) McLaren-Mercedes 1:39.360, 17 Valtteri Bottas (Fin)
Williams-Renault 1:39.392, 18 Esteban Gutierrez (Mex) Sauber-Ferrari
1:40.032, 19 Jules Bianchi (Fra) Marussia-Cosworth 1:41.966, 20 Max Chilton
(Gbr) Marussia-Cosworth 1:42.056, 21 Giedo van der Garde (Hol)
Caterham-Renault 1:42.083, 22 Ma Qing Hua (Chn) Caterham-Renault 1:43.545
Edited by Nick Pearce