Mercedes: Times tumble on opening day in Austria

A time of 1:07:373 from Nico Rosberg in the morning session saw him set a new fastest lap of the Spielberg circuit.

Both drivers ran the super soft and ultra soft compound tyres in the morning session. In the afternoon Nico ran the intermediate, super soft and ultra soft tyres, while Lewis ran the soft, intermediate and ultra soft. 

Nico Rosberg: "There are some changes to the circuit this year with the new asphalt and kerbing; from my point of view those changes are pretty cool and it's still a really enjoyable track to drive. The new asphalt seems to be suiting our car quite well, maybe better even than the old tarmac, but tyre usage will be the decisive factor this weekend as we saw quite a lot of graining during our dry running. In the wet this afternoon, I found a good balance with the car, so overall I'm pretty happy with our first day."

Lewis Hamilton: "It was a tricky day getting up to speed and getting laps out on track. It started coming together this morning but then the rain in the second session meant we had to adapt our programme. Luckily, the high track temperatures meant the circuit dried out very quickly, so I was able to get more running on the ultra-soft tyre before the session finished and to get a feel for the balance and performance. We didn't have any problems today, which is definitely a positive, and there's definitely more to come. So I'm really looking forward to tomorrow."

Paddy Lowe, Executive Director (Technical): "It's been a good day as we managed to do quite a lot of work despite the disruption of the rain. We had a couple of spins this morning, one for each car but no real damage was done. We needed to do a little bit of work on the balance of both cars but overall the drivers are happy with their respective performances. It's amazing how hard it can rain and yet within an hour the track can be completely dry again. I've never seen anything like that - ever!"

Mercedes AMG Petronas