Rosberg sets early pace at Austria

F1 Grand Prix, GP Austria, Red Bull Ring

Nico Rosberg set the pace during the first practice session of the Austrian Grand Prix weekend at Spielberg. The German was more than 3 tenths ahead of his team mate Lewis Hamilton, with Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel following in third.

While Vettel faces a 5-place grid penalty if Ferrari would discover gearbox damage from Baku, Kimi Raikkonen was fourth fastest, seeing Ferrari settle in as the second best team at the start of running. This will likely be a boost to the team, as the Scuderia struggled throughout the Friday sessions at Baku.

Daniel Ricciardo was 5th fastest, even though the Red Bull Ring is not greatly suited to the RB12, according to the team itself. Carlos Sainz in the Toro Rosso slotted into 6th, ahead of Felipe Massa, the fastest of both Williams cars.

Behind them in the pecking order is Max Verstappen, who got caught out by the new kerbs that have been laid out around the track to prevent drivers from going too far off the track in pursuit of quicker laps. Verstappen first ran wide over some new sausage kerbs to lose part of his front wing, and half a minute later ran wide again, hitting another series of 'sausage kerbs' that eventually broke his right front steering arm, sending him off into the gravel trap.

9th fastest was Red Bull's former driver, Daniil Kvyat, with Valtteri Bottas completing the top 10.