Rosberg hits the ground running in Singapore

Nico Rosberg was fastest in FP1, three tenths ahead of Lewis Hamilton. The Brit looked to be struggling on track compared to his team mate; running wide at turns 1 and 7.

However, times in the first practice session in Singapore are notoriously unrepresentative. The track is incredible dirty in the early stages and the temperatures are different as the session does not take place at night as qualifying and the race do. FP2 will give more of an indication of the grid order.

Daniel Ricciardo teased what Red Bull could achieve this weekend with 3rd, less than two hundredths of a second off Hamilton. His team mate, however, was kept in the garage for approximately half an hour with a fuel system issue.

Sebastian Vettel was 4th half a second off Rosberg, with Kimi Raikkonen in 5th. Ferrari were comparing floor designs in the session, as the lack of importance in the session makes it an ideal one to test new parts, such as Sauber who introduced the short nose design.

Valtteri Bottas was 6th with an upgrade which Williams hope will improve their performance in low-speed corners, having been off the pace in Monaco. The Finn was closely followed by Max Verstappen who was limited by an engine issue.

Nico Hulkenberg was 8th, with Carlos Sainz 9th and Pastor Maldonado rounded out the top 10, although the Venezuelan stopped running 20 minutes before the end of the session as there was a potential gearbox issue, and Lotus do not have the spares to risk a reliability failure.

Alexander Rossi made his Formula One race debut but hit the wall at turn 18 with just three minutes remaining in the session. The crash left the car with a lot of damage on the right hand side of the car, and the team may not be able to get it ready for FP2. However, the American was doing a solid job up until that point; he was less than two hundredths of a second behind team mate Will Stevens.

Final classification

1. Nico Rosberg – Mercedes – 1:47.995

2. Lewis Hamilton – Mercedes – 1:48.314

3. Daniel Ricciardo – Red Bull – 1:48.331

4. Sebastian Vettel – Ferrari – 1:48.494

5. Kimi Raikkonen – Ferrari – 1:48.785

6. Valtteri Bottas – Williams – 1:49.380

7. Max Verstappen – Toro Rosso – 1:49.466

8. Nico Hulkenberg – Force India – 1:49.854

9. Carlos Sainz – Toro Rosso – 1:50.019

10. Pastor Maldonado – Lotus – 1:50.068

11. Fernando Alonso – McLaren – 1:50.123

12. Sergio Perez – Force India – 1:50.125

13. Felipe Nasr – Sauber – 1:50.158

14. Romain Grosjean – Lotus – 1:50.341

15. Jenson Button – McLaren – 1:50.455

16. Marcus Ericsson – Sauber – 1:50.883

17. Felipe Massa – Williams – 1:51.035

18. Daniil Kvyat – Red Bull – 1:51.188

19. Will Stevens – Manor – 1:53.903

20. Alexander Rossi – Manor – 1:53.918

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