Nico Rosberg set the quickest time of the opening practice session for the Singapore Grand Prix beating team-mate by three tenths of a second as new Manor Grand Prix driver Alexander Rossi crashed out in the final moments of the session.

Rosberg was the first to set a timed lap and the German was never headed during the 90-minute session. He was also the only driver to break into 1m47s bracket, setting a fastest lap of 1:47.995 to keep Hamilton at bay.

Hamilton made a solid start to the weekend and was quickly shadowing his pace-setting team-mate on the timesheets. He lost second spot to Ferrari’s Kimi Räikkönen for a period and was also eclipsed by Daniel Ricciardo, who benefited from the partial eradication of his Renault engine’s power deficit provided by Singapore’s twisting streets.

Rosberg stretched his legs, however, as the session hit the half-way point, with the German posting a time of 1:48.004 to gap Ricciardo by 1.5s. Hamilton then closed that gap, vaulting past Ricciardo to claim P2 with a lap that would stand as his best of the session. Rosberg then went marginally quicker with his best of the session to widen the gap to 0.319s.

Ricciardo, meanwhile, was also improving and he held onto third place with a time of 1:48.331, just under three hundredths of a second behind Hamilton.

There was less good fortune for his Red Bull team-mate Daniil Kvyat. The Russian turned just eight laps in the session and spent most of the 90 minutes with mechanics working furiously on his RB12 to fix a suspected fuel system problem.

Sebastian Vettel finished fourth for Ferrari, half a second behind Rosberg, with Räikkönen fifth. Valtteri Bottas finished the session in sixth place for Williams, with Toro Rosso’s Max Verstappen seventh ahead of Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg, Carlos Sainz in the second Toro Rosso and Lotus’ Pastor Maldonado, whose session was ended 15 minutes from regulation time by a suspected gearbox issue.

US driver Alexander Rossi, who on Wednesday was announced as a late replacement for Roberto Merhi at Manor for five of the seven races remaining this season, finished at the bottom of the timesheet. He also crashed out at Turn 18 with four laps remaining, with the front right of his car sustaining heavy damage.

2015 Singapore Grand Prix – Free Practice 1
1 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1:47.995 27
2 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:48.314 0.319 24
3 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull Racing 1:48.331 0.336 21
4 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 1:48.494 0.499 23
5 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 1:48.785 0.790 20
6 Valtteri Bottas Williams 1:49.380 1.385 19
7 Max Verstappen Toro Rosso 1:49.466 1.471 17
8 Nico Hulkenberg Force India 1:49.854 1.859 21
9 Carlos Sainz Toro Rosso 1:50.019 2.024 28
10 Pastor Maldonado Lotus 1:50.068 2.073 21
11 Fernando Alonso McLaren 1:50.123 2.128 21
12 Sergio Perez Force India 1:50.125 2.130 23
13 Felipe Nasr Sauber 1:50.158 2.163 18
14 Romain Grosjean Lotus 1:50.341 2.346 23
15 Jenson Button McLaren 1:50.455 2.460 21
16 Marcus Ericsson Sauber 1:50.883 2.888 21
17 Felipe Massa Williams 1:51.035 3.040 18
18 Daniil Kvyat Red Bull Racing 1:51.188 3.193 8
19 Will Stevens Marussia 1:53.903 5.908 20
20 Alexander Rossi Marussia 1:53.918 5.923 18