» Ricciardo pips Hamilton by 0.004s in FP1

Daniel Ricciardo celebrated Formula 1’s return to Germany by beating Mercedes on home soil in Friday’s opening practice session – albeit to the tune of just four-thousandths of a second on the stopwatch – however the Australian’s potential joy will be tempered by the knowledge he will start Sunday’s race from the back of the grid.

The Red Bull Racing driver edged defending World Champion Lewis Hamilton by the barest of margins at the end of the 90-minute session, with his teammate Max Verstappen an encouraging third-fastest and Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel in close pursuit.

The opening practice session indicated there was little to separate the ‘big three’ teams – Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull Racing – with just seven-tenths of a second covering the fastest six drivers as Valtteri Bottas and Kimi Räikkönen finished fifth and sixth on the timesheets respectively.

The Haas F1 Team continued its recent run of form as the ‘best of the rest’ teams among the midfield, with Romain Grosjean leading teammate Kevin Magnussen. Sauber’s Charles Leclerc and Renault’s Nick Hülkenberg rounded out the top ten on the timesheets.

Hülkenbergwas one of several drivers finding himself caught out at Turn 1, the high-speed Sachskurve right-hander that marks the entry to the iconic (and today, rather barren) stadium section of the circuit. The German ran wide exiting the corner and took a rapid trip through the gravel trap before rejoining the circuit, while several more of his contemporaries suffered monir bodywork damage running over the kerbs exiting the turn.

Two teams – Force India and Sauber – ran reserve drivers during the session. The former gave Formula 2 racer Nicholas Latifi his second FP1 hit-out of the season, with the Canadian finishing 17th-fastest driving Esteban Ocon’s VJM11.

Sauber gave its former substitute driver Antonio Giovinazzi a hit-out in Marcus Ericsson’s car. The Italian had something of a scare when his engine cover parted company with his car half an hour into the session, forcing the GP2 Series runner-up to limp slowly back to the pits for new bodywork.

He finished the session 19th-quickest ahead of McLaren’s Stoffel Vandoorne who, along with teammate Fernando Alonso, completed little running.

Friday’s second practice session gets underway at 15:00 local time (GMT +2).

FORMULA 1 EMIRATES GROSSER PREIS VON DEUTSCHLAND 2018 – FREE PRACTICE SESSION 1 TIMES
	Driver	Team / Entry	Time	Gap	Laps
1.	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull Racing Tag Heuer RB14	1:13.525		22
2.	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport F1W09	1:13.529	+ 0.004	29
3.	Max Verstappen	Red Bull Racing Tag Heuer RB14	1:13.714	+ 0.189	34
4.	Sebastian Vettel	Scuderia Ferrari SF71H	1:13.796	+ 0.271	23
5.	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport F1W09	1:13.903	+ 0.378	30
6.	Kimi Räikkönen	Scuderia Ferrari SF71H	1:14.267	+ 0.742	24
7.	Romain Grosjean	Haas F1 Team Ferrari VF-18	1:14.691	+ 1.166	29
8.	Kevin Magnussen	Haas F1 Team Ferrari VF-18	1:14.853	+ 1.328	28
9.	Charles Leclerc	Alfa Romeo Sauber F1 Team Ferrari C37	1:15.097	+ 1.572	25
10.	Nico Hülkenberg	Renault Sport F1 Team RS18	1:15.282	+ 1.757	32
11.	Sergio Pérez	Force India F1 Team Mercedes VJM11	1:15.415	+ 1.890	29
12.	Fernando Alonso	McLaren F1 Team Renault MCL33	1:15.544	+ 2.019	13
13.	Lance Stroll	Williams Martini Racing Mercedes FW41	1:15.629	+ 2.104	32
14.	Carlos Sainz Jr	Renault Sport F1 Team RS18	1:15.769	+ 2.244	10
15.	Brendon Hartley	Red Bull Toro Rosso Honda STR13	1:15.864	+ 2.339	36
16.	Sergey Sirotkin	Williams Martini Racing Mercedes FW41	1:15.876	+ 2.351	34
17.	Nicholas Latifi	Force India F1 Team Mercedes VJM11	1:16.023	+ 2.498	27
18.	Pierre Gasly	Red Bull Toro Rosso Honda STR13	1:16.071	+ 2.546	32
19.	Antonio Giovinazzi	Alfa Romeo Sauber F1 Team Ferrari C37	1:16.136	+ 2.611	23
20.	Stoffel Vandoorne	McLaren F1 Team Renault MCL33	1:16.149	+ 2.624	14