German GP | Vettel tops FP1 in front of home crowd
Good start of the weekend for Sebastian Vettel, who set the fastest lap in the Friday morning at Hockenheim. His best lap of 1:14.013 put him ahead of teammate Charles Leclerc and five-time world champion Lewis Hamilton.
Free Practice 1 kickoff the weekend in Germany with very hot weather, as air temperature rises to 35 celsius degrees. Start of Practice 1 and Verstappen is first to go out, as Vettel also come out in front of his home fans. Gasly has got the 1:21.220, Sainz 1:17.939. Installation lap for everyone, as Mercedes shows his new livery for the weekend, with a white front wing to celebrate Mercedes’ 125th anniversary. Just a few laps and Gasly is complaining on team radio as he has problems with bad vibrations on the car.
Red flag after 18 minutes as Kevin Magnussen stopped his Haas on track at turn 13 for a technical problem. Session restart after 8 minutes, with Verstappen going faster on 1:16.100. The Dutch is searching for his second win at the season and is still training itself on the sim, as he just completed the 24h of Spa with his rival Lando Norris as teammate:
After half an hour, both Mercedes are on track with soft tyres and Bottas tops with 1:14.805, just in front of Hamilton, Leclerc, Verstappen and Vettel, with top 5 drivers in a 7 tenths gap.
Little bit of misunderstanding between Hamilton and Vettel, with the German passing him on track and waving at him. Charles Leclerc put Ferrari finally on top with 24 minutes to go, in 1:14.268 with red soft tyres. 5 minutes later and Vettel goes first with 1:14.013, also on reds in front of Leclerc.
First laps on the board 🏁 #FP1
— Scuderia Ferrari (@ScuderiaFerrari) July 26, 2019
1️⃣ #Seb5 🇩🇪 ⏱ 1:14.013
2️⃣ #Charles16 🇲🇨 ⏱ 1:14.268
Another 90 minutes coming up 🔜 don’t go anywhere!#essereFerrari 🔴 #GermanGP pic.twitter.com/XQi4w9hRNN
Third is Hamilton with 1:14.315, but the Brit improved further more on medium compounds. Both Mercedes are pushing, as they both goes a bit off on the gravel over the kerbs. One minute to the end of the session and Bottas is off the track at turn 13, nearly touching the wall! Daniel Ricciardo also has a spin as we head into chequered flag with Sebastian Vettel on top.
90 seconds from the end of the session, @ValtteriBottas locks up and finds the gravel
— Formula 1 (@F1) July 26, 2019
His Mercedes comes to a halt a few centimetres from the barriers and luckily there doesn't seem to be any damage#F1 #GermanGP 🇩🇪 pic.twitter.com/nOMhPcbYKE
Last year's pole position by Sebastian Vettel was a 1:11.212, so there is still a lot to improve on performance and track conditions during the weekend. Weather will be an important point as heavy rain is expected for both Saturday and Sunday.
