Hungarian Grand Prix: Lewis Hamilton heads Nico Rosberg as Mercedes dominate

Lewis Hamilton has won four of the last five grands prix

Lewis Hamilton headed team-mate Nico Rosberg as Mercedes utterly dominated first practice at the Hungarian Grand Prix.

Hamilton was 0.237 seconds quicker than Rosberg, who has signed a new two-year contract with Mercedes, and 1.644secs ahead of Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel.

The second Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen was fourth, ahead of the Red Bulls of Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen.

McLaren's Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button were seventh and eighth.

It was an encouraging session on one level for the McLaren team, who have been struggling since the start of their engine partnership with Honda last year.

The McLaren appears to have pace, which suggests the team's hope that they may have one of their best weekends of the season is well founded.

Unlike Mercedes and Ferrari, neither Red Bull used the quicker supersoft tyre in first practice

But the car looked unstable out on track, with both drivers having spins - Alonso lost control at the last corner and Button at Turn Five, where the Spaniard also had a moment, although without going off track.

But they - and everyone else - were miles off the Mercedes, Hamilton and Rosberg apparently in a world of their own at the front.

A major upgrade to the car introduced for the last race at Silverstone, which featured widespread aerodynamic changes, seems to have moved the car on to another level.

Hamilton heads into the weekend a point behind Rosberg in the championship and determined to take the lead for the first time this season on one of his favourite tracks.

Hamilton has won at the Hungaroring four times since his career started in 2007, but Mercedes are yet to win here since the start of the hybrid engine era in 2014.

Hungarian Grand Prix practice results

Hungarian Grand Prix coverage details