Japanese GP: Hamilton leads Merc one-two in FP1

Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg gave Mercedes the early advantage in Japanese Grand Prix Friday practice.

In a 'two by two' top eight in which the driver pairings from Formula 1's leading four teams lined up next to each other, Mercedes secured a one-two ahead of the Red Bulls.

Rosberg put in his quick lap, a 1m34.487s, first but it was usurped shortly afterwards when Hamilton went 0.330 seconds quicker.

Sebastian Vettel was the fastest Red Bull in third, albeit 0.611s off the pace.

His team-mate Mark Webber took fourth, followed by the Ferraris, and Lotuses, with Felipe Massa and Romain Grosjean outpacing their respective team-mates.

The symmetry was broken at the foot of the top 10, where Daniel Ricciardo put his Toro Rosso between the McLarens of Sergio Perez and Jenson Button late on.

Several drivers further down the order ran into trouble. Pastor Maldonado had to park his Williams at Spoon after spinning when his left rear wheel flew off.

Both Jules Bianchi and Giedo van der Garde crashed at Degner. While the Caterham only just nudged the tyres, Bianchi's Marussia will need a more substantial rebuild following his early crash.
Despite only managing eight laps on his Suzuka debut, Bianchi was a second clear of Marussia team-mate Max Chilton and was only narrowly pipped to rear quartet honours by Caterham's returnee practice driver Heikki Kovalainen.

Pos Driver                Team                  Time       Gap     Laps
 1. Lewis Hamilton        Mercedes              1m34.157s          19
 2. Nico Rosberg          Mercedes              1m34.487s  +0.330s 19
 3. Sebastian Vettel      Red Bull-Renault      1m34.768s  +0.611s 24
 4. Mark Webber           Red Bull-Renault      1m34.787s  +0.630s 20
 5. Felipe Massa          Ferrari               1m35.126s  +0.969s 14
 6. Fernando Alonso       Ferrari               1m35.154s  +0.997s 16
 7. Romain Grosjean       Lotus-Renault         1m35.179s  +1.022s 15
 8. Kimi Raikkonen        Lotus-Renault         1m35.364s  +1.207s 17
 9. Sergio Perez          McLaren-Mercedes      1m35.450s  +1.293s 27
10. Daniel Ricciardo      Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1m35.635s  +1.478s 19
11. Jenson Button         McLaren-Mercedes      1m35.868s  +1.711s 22
12. Nico Hülkenberg       Sauber-Ferrari        1m35.900s  +1.743s 18
13. Jean-Eric Vergne      Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1m36.066s  +1.909s 20
14. Adrian Sutil          Force India-Mercedes  1m36.165s  +2.008s 19
15. Pastor Maldonado      Williams-Renault      1m36.178s  +2.021s 12
16. Valtteri Bottas       Williams-Renault      1m36.340s  +2.183s 23
17. Paul Di Resta         Force India-Mercedes  1m36.399s  +2.242s 18
18. Esteban Gutierrez     Sauber-Ferrari        1m36.760s  +2.603s 22
19. Heikki Kovalainen     Caterham-Renault      1m37.595s  +3.438s 22
20. Jules Bianchi         Marussia-Cosworth     1m37.629s  +3.472s  8
21. Giedo van der Garde   Caterham-Renault      1m38.025s  +3.868s 15
22. Max Chilton           Marussia-Cosworth     1m38.763s  +4.606s 18