Rosberg edges Hamilton in first Spa session

Mercedes AMG Petronas

Nico Rosberg set the fastest time during the first practice session at a cool, but sunny Spa-Francorchamps as Formula 1 returned from its summer break.

Rosberg topped the times early on in the session, before team-mate Lewis Hamilton lowered the benchmark by 0.050s.

Rosberg responded by setting a time of 1:51.577, 0.097s, while Hamilton wrecked another potential hot lap when he went off the circuit at Pouhon. He repeated the error a lap later and also went wide at Les Combes during the session.

Drivers used the white-banded Medium tyres as track temperatures struggled to reach 24°c, considerably lower than the previous two events in Germany and Hungary.

Fernando Alonso was the only driver to get near to the Mercedes duo as the Spaniard set a time 0.228s down on Rosberg, although he briefly encountered mechanical gremlins in his Ferrari F14T.

Jenson Button was fourth fastest for McLaren, eight-tenths behind Rosberg, with his session briefly interrupted by a DRS issue. Kimi Räikkönen spun at La Source but nonetheless managed fifth, although he spent some time in the garage due to temperature concerns with his ERS.

Sergio Pérez was sixth for McLaren, ahead of Kevin Magnussen and Nico Hülkenberg.

Daniel Ricciardo was the highest placed Renault-powered car in ninth, ahead of Williams racer Valtteri Bottas.

Sebastian Vettel was 11^th quickest and ran off track at Pouhon before spending some time in the garage as concerned-looking mechanics worked on his RB10. Red Bull later confirmed the problem was a burnt exhaust.

Daniil Kvyat suffered a huge moment at Pouhon but recovered to go 12^th, ahead of Romain Grosjean and Adrian Sutil.

Felipe Massa set the 15^th quickest time, ahead of Jean-Éric Vergne and Sauber reserve driver Giedo van der Garde, who complained of power issues with the C33.

Pastor Maldonado was 18^th, ahead of Jules Bianchi and Marussia reserve driver Alexander Rossi, who will hand back over to Max Chilton for the remainder of the weekend after the Brit’s contractual issues were resolved.

At the back Caterham introduced a raft of upgrades, including a new front nose design, although neither debutant Andre Lotterer nor regular driver Marcus Ericsson were able to make huge progress.

Lotterer was 21^st, 6.3s off the pace, while Ericsson spun at La Source and ended up a tenth down on his new team-mate.