Spanish GP: Hamilton leads first practice for Mercedes

Lewis Hamilton set the pace for the opening Formula 1 practice session of the Spanish Grand Prix weekend to continue his stronghold on this year's championship.

The Mercedes driver ensured it was a British 1-2 at the top of the timing sheets as he finished 0.868s ahead of McLaren's Jenson Button.

Button held the fastest time for the majority of the Friday morning session recording his best time on the hour mark.

The McLaren driver was stationed at the top of the timesheets until his compatriot Hamilton set the fastest time five minutes from the end of the session.

There were problems for Sebastian Vettel, who sat out nearly the entire practice period after an electrical issue halted his running and he pulled to the side of the track at Turn 5, just 25 minutes into FP1.

The German had only completed four laps when the problem struck his car and he ended up with the 20th fastest time.

Nico Rosberg could only manage the fifth fastest time after he suffered a lack of running due to a problem with his Mercedes power unit.

Behind Button, Daniel Ricciardo was third fastest in his Red Bull ahead of Fernando Alonso, who was visibly hustling his Ferrari around the Spanish GP circuit.

His team-mate Kimi Raikkonen was sixth ahead of the second McLaren of Kevin Magnussen.

There was drama for Giedo van der Garde when he suffered a partial brake failure at Turn 1 and ran through the gravel at high speed, just missing the barriers on the outside of the corner.

Sauber's reserve driver was in the car in place of Esteban Gutierrez for FP1. He was able to continue to the pits unharmed.

The opening practice session of the weekend was the first chance for all the teams to try test the performance of their upgrades.

There was a bizarre moment for Sergio Perez when his left rear view mirror broke and came into his cockpit, forcing the Force India driver into the pits.

Pos Driver                Team                  Time       Gap    Laps
 1. Lewis Hamilton        Mercedes              1:27.023s           17
 2. Jenson Button         McLaren-Mercedes      1:27.891s  +0.868s  26
 3. Daniel Ricciardo      Red Bull-Renault      1:27.973s  +0.950s  21
 4. Fernando Alonso       Ferrari               1:28.128s  +1.105s  23
 5. Nico Rosberg          Mercedes              1:28.168s  +1.145s   9
 6. Kimi Raikkonen        Ferrari               1:28.337s  +1.314s  19
 7. Kevin Magnussen       McLaren-Mercedes      1:28.423s  +1.400s  27
 8. Pastor Maldonado      Lotus-Renault         1:28.744s  +1.721s  34
 9. Sergio Perez          Force India-Mercedes  1:28.779s  +1.756s  18
10. Felipe Massa          Williams-Mercedes     1:28.791s  +1.768s  13
11. Daniil Kvyat          Toro Rosso-Renault    1:28.792s  +1.769s  24
12. Nico Hulkenberg       Force India-Mercedes  1:28.828s  +1.805s  17
13. Jean-Eric Vergne      Toro Rosso-Renault    1:28.859s  +1.836s  24
14. Felipe Nasr           Williams-Mercedes     1:29.272s  +2.249s  15
15. Adrian Sutil          Sauber-Ferrari        1:29.688s  +2.665s  16
16. Jules Bianchi         Marussia-Ferrari      1:29.820s  +2.797s  22
17. Romain Grosjean       Lotus-Renault         1:29.444s  +2.421s  21
18. Giedo van der Garde   Sauber-Ferrari        1:30.440s  +3.417s  21
19. Max Chilton           Marussia-Ferrari      1:30.748s  +3.725s  19
20. Sebastian Vettel      Red Bull-Renault      1:30.942s  +3.919s   4
21. Kamui Kobayashi       Caterham-Renault      1:30.997s  +3.974s  22
22. Marcus Ericsson       Caterham-Renault      1:31.421s  +4.398s  22