Nico Rosberg proved the man to beat as he topped the times in Friday practice ahead of the German Grand Prix.

The Mercedes driver had the measure of his team-mate Lewis Hamilton throughout the two 90 minute sessions at the Hockenheimring, posting a session best 1:15.517s in the opening hit out.

Rosberg’s time on the super-soft compound proved to be 0.326s faster than Hamilton’s fastest lap, also set in Practice 1.

The majority of the field improved in the second session led by Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel, who was the best of the rest in third, courtesy of a late run on the super-softs.

The four-time world champion ended the day within 0.7s of Rosberg on the same rubber.

Max Verstappen pipped his Red Bull team-mate Daniel Ricciardo to fourth with less than a tenth separating the pair.

The sister Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen enjoyed a brief spell at the top of the times before falling to sixth ahead of Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg.

McLaren’s Jenson Button showed encouraging signs in eighth although the Brit completed just 16 laps in Practice 2.

The 2009 world champion was forced to sit out the second half of the session after complaining of an eye irritation.

Team-mate Fernando Alonso rounded out the top 10 behind Force India’s Sergio Perez.

Toro Rosso’s Carlos Sainz and Daniil Kvyat occupied 11th and 12th, while Valtteri Bottas was the top Williams in 13th position.

Several drivers were warned by stewards during practice for exceeding the track limits at Turn 1.

Prior to the commencement of practice, the FIA has confirmed that qualifying sessions will be halted if marshals deploy double waved yellow flags following an incident.

The move arrives to eliminate the ambiguity of whether a driver has sufficiently lifted during a double waved yellow flag zone.

Rosberg was the subject of controversy when he posted a lap to secure pole position for the Hungarian Grand Prix while yellow flags were present in the second sector.

Result: Formula 1 German Grand Prix Practice 1 

Result: Formula 1 German Grand Prix Practice 2