Vettel leads Ferrari 1-2 in opening German GP practice

Vettel waves to the German crowd

Sebastian Vettel, who crashed out while leading last year's German GP, turned the fastest lap in opening practice Friday morning at Hockenheim. With a fresh set of red compound Pirellis on, the German's lap of 1m14.013s was 0.255s faster than his Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc.

Lewis Hamilton was third quick for Mercedes, who are sandbagging until the heat subsides later in the weekend. The Mercedes is packaged so tight, cooling is an issue in hot weather.

Max Verstappen was 4th quick for Red Bull, while Valtteri Bottas rounded out the top-5 in the 2nd Mercedes but ended the session in the gravel at Turn 13.

Practice 1 Results

POS	NO	DRIVER	CAR	TIME	GAP	LAPS
1	5	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	1:14.013	+0.000s	21
2	16	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	1:14.268	+0.255s	25
3	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1:14.315	+0.302s	32
4	33	Max Verstappen	Red Bull Racing Honda	1:14.330	+0.317s	28
5	77	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes	1:14.660	+0.647s	28
6	10	Pierre Gasly	Red Bull Racing Honda	1:14.813	+0.800s	23
7	55	Carlos Sainz	Mclaren Renault	1:15.062	+1.049s	30
8	8	Romain Grosjean	Haas Ferrari	1:15.074	+1.061s	30
9	18	Lance Stroll	Racing Point Bwt Mercedes	1:15.191	+1.178s	26
10	3	Daniel Ricciardo	Renault	1:15.567	+1.554s	23
11	11	Sergio Perez	Racing Point Bwt Mercedes	1:15.604	+1.591s	24
12	4	Lando Norris	Mclaren Renault	1:15.616	+1.603s	26
13	20	Kevin Magnussen	Haas Ferrari	1:15.759	+1.746s	27
14	26	Daniil Kvyat	Scuderia Toro Rosso Honda	1:15.776	+1.763s	30
15	23	Alexander Albon	Scuderia Toro Rosso Honda	1:15.777	+1.764s	24
16	27	Nico Hulkenberg	Renault	1:15.823	+1.810s	23
17	7	Kimi Raikkonen	Alfa Romeo Racing Ferrari	1:15.953	+1.940s	26
18	99	Antonio Giovinazzi	Alfa Romeo Racing Ferrari	1:16.382	+2.369s	31
19	88	Robert Kubica	Williams Mercedes	1:16.559	+2.546s	27
20	63	George Russell	Williams Mercedes	1:17.126	+3.113s	23