After a busy few days off-track, Mercedes began in Germany where they left off in Britain, displaying early dominance at the Nrburgring by taking the top two positions in the first free practice session.

Under overcast skies the first practice session at the Nrburgring proceeded under threat of a driver race boycott, should the tyre failures which blighted the British Grand Prix reoccur. With a new set of tyre safety precautions being enforced, the session passed without issue.

Hamilton eventually emerged on top with a time of 1:31.754 set at the hour mark. He and Rosberg had been swapping fastest laps for much of the session with the Briton eventually coming out on top by a margin of two-tenths of a second. Behind the Silver Arrows there was a long gap back to Mark Webber in third place. The Red Bull driver was 1.035s adrift of Hamiltons time.

Behind Webber, Adrian Sutil was fourth quickest for Force India, ahead of Kimi Rikknens Lotus. Felipe Massa was sixth in the sole running Ferrari, with Jenson Button seventh in the first of the McLarens. World Champion Sebastian Vettel had a low-key return to home soil in eighth, ahead of Romain Grosjean, ninth for Lotus. Sergio Prez rounded out the top ten in the second McLaren.

Conspicuous by his absence from that list was the Ferrari of Fernando Alonso. Alonso coasted to a halt on his out-lap, his car sidelined by a suspected electrical problem. He pulled off the circuit and made his way back to the garage on the back of a moped. With his car swiftly recovered he re-emerged at the halfway mark, only to slow to a crawl and inform the pitwall his problem had resurfaced. He was able to complete the lap but did not take any further part in the session and failed to set a time.

2013 German Grand Prix, Free Practice One times.

1 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:31.7542 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1:31.973 +0.2193 Mark Webber Red Bull Racing 1:32.789 +1.0354 Adrian Sutil Force India 1:32.822 +1.0685 Kimi Rikknen Lotus 1:32.956 +1.2026 Felipe Massa Ferrari 1:33.065 +1.3117 Jenson Button McLaren 1:33.139 +1.3858 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull Racing 1:33.213 +1.4599 Romain Grosjean Lotus 1:33.260 +1.50610 Sergio Prez McLaren 1:33.456 +1.70211 Paul di Resta Force India 1:33.493 +1.73912 Nico Hlkenberg Sauber 1:33.810 +2.05613 Daniel Ricciardo Toro Rosso 1:33.901 +2.14714 Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso 1:33.976 +2.22215 Pastor Maldonado Williams 1:34.025 +2.27116 Valtteri Bottas Williams 1:34.200 +2.44617 Esteban Gutirrez Sauber 1:34.437 +2.68318 Charles Pic Caterham 1:35.674 +3.92019 Max Chilton Marussia 1:35.987 +4.23320 Giedo van der Garde Caterham 1:36.078 +4.32421 Rodolfo Gonzalez Marussia 1:37.459 +5.70522 Fernando Alonso Ferrari No time