Nico Rosberg has signed a contract extension with Mercedes that will take the current championship leader through the 2018 season, the Formula One team said Friday.
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Hamilton managed to limp back to his Mercedes garage, but he sustained damage to the left-hand side of his vehicle, and was subsequently ruled out for the remainder of the second practice session after completing only four laps.
The pair have exasperated team bosses with their on-track rivalry at times this season, particularly after they collided on the last lap of the Austrian GP, with Rosberg finishing fourth in a damaged auto.
Hamilton led Mercedes team mate Nico Rosberg by 0.2s, with Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel a further 1.4s back in third. ‘My apologies to the crew for all the hard work they have ahead to get the auto back together’. “We have had a great time together and I am sure we will have a successful future”.
“Obviously not the greatest session for me”, Hamilton said.
Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg led the way in Friday’s open practice session while Lewis Hamilton ended up in fifth after loosing control and sliding into the barriers on the fourth lap of his run.
Rosberg had trailed his teammate by 0.001s after the initial runs on the soft tyre, but Hamilton’s shunt into the wall red-flagged the session and ruled him out of any qualifying simulations.
Teammate Lewis Hamilton was unhurt after crashing sideways into a barrier of rubber tires, Mercedes said.
The Briton, who went into the weekend at one of his most rewarding circuits as the man to beat, was fastest in the morning.
The deal makes Rosberg one of the best paid racers in F1 after Hamilton, Sebastian Vettel and Fernando Alonso.
Rosberg, victor of five races this year, heads to the weekend holding a slim one-point lead over Hamilton, down from the 43-point advantage he held over the Briton after the Spanish Grand Prix in May. “The auto is very quick, so a good start to the weekend”.
Sebastian Vettel, who won the race previous year, was third in his Ferrari ahead of Verstappen.
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Williams, with its cars possessing a new floor and with three different variations of front wing being assessed as per the recent test at Silverstone, continued to struggle with Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas down in 12th and 14th.
