Formula One championship leader Nico Rosberg has signed a new contract that will keep him at Mercedes with Lewis Hamilton until the end of the 2018 season, the team said yesterday.
 The team tweeted a video of the 31-year-old, runner up to Briton Hamilton in the championship for the last two years, signing the contract to race for the team in the 2017 and 2018 seasons.
 “Special moment for me, of course, this moment of signing that piece of paper,” Rosberg said in a second video posted on social media by Mercedes. “I look forward to the future of course.”
 There was no immediate comment from Rosberg yesterday as the German warmed up for the opening practice session for tomorrow’s Hungarian Grand Prix.
 “We are delighted to announce that the Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula 1 Team has signed a two-year contract extension with Nico Rosberg for the 2017 and 2018 Formula One seasons,” Mercedes said in a statement. “Nico has been a core member of the Silver Arrows since the team returned to the sport in 2010 and has played a crucial role in the team’s success in that time.”
 Rosberg joined Mercedes from Williams in 2010 when the German marque returned to the sport as a full works outfit, and has helped the team to two constructors’ triumphs with 19 victories, including five this year.
 Triple world champion Hamilton signed a three-year deal with the team through to the end of the 2018 season in May last year.
 “We are very happy, we had a couple of weeks of discussions,” Mercedes boss Toto Wolff said in a video. “It was always clear we wanted to continue, Nico is the real deal for us.”
 Rosberg and Hamilton have been the only two realistic championship contenders as Mercedes have dominated Formula One since the start of the V6 turbo-hybrid era in 2014.
 The pair have often exasperated team bosses with their on-track rivalry, most recently after they collided on the last lap of the Austrian Grand Prix while fighting for the lead, their third collision in five races that prompted Mercedes to put stricter deterrents in place.
 Rosberg holds a one-point lead over Hamilton in the drivers’ standings heading into this weekend’s Hungarian Grand Prix, down from an imposing 43 points in May. His confirmation at Mercedes puts speculation surrounding his future to bed and locks down another seat with a top team after Ferrari renewed its contract with Kimi Raikkonen at the last race in Britain.
 Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen also recently put pen to paper on long-term contracts with Red Bull.
 Rosberg’s new deal also means Red Bull team principal Christian Horner’s prediction that Sebastian Vettel would move to Mercedes from Ferrari in 2018 is also unlikely to materialise.
 Williams now hold the most attractive seats on the driver market with the spotlight on the future of McLaren’s Jenson Button.

Rosberg fastest in practice as Hamilton crashes out

Nico Rosberg ended yesterday’s opening day of practice for the Hungarian Grand Prix fastest after Mercedes teammate and title rival Lewis Hamilton crashed out earlier during the day. The world championship leader, fresh from signing a two-year contract extension keeping him at Mercedes until the end of 2018, lapped the 4.3-kilometre Hungaroring in one minute 20.435 seconds in the afternoon, after having gone second quickest in the morning.
 Hamilton, bidding to seize the championship lead for the first time this season with an unprecedented fifth win in Hungary, was fifth after crashing out with four laps on the board.
The Briton, who went into the weekend at one of his most rewarding circuits as the man to beat, was fastest in the morning. But he lost control of his Mercedes 15 minutes into the second post-lunch session, skating across the run-off and clouting the barriers side-on. He underwent a precautionary check at the medical centre and appeared to be fine, but his car had to be fully stripped and checked, ruling him out of the rest of the session.
 Hamilton has won four of the last five races and trails Rosberg by one point heading into tomorrow’s race, down from the 43-point deficit between the pair after May’s Spanish Grand Prix. He jointly holds the record for most wins at the track with Michael Schumacher.
 Former Hungarian Grand Prix winner Daniel Ricciardo, fifth in the morning, ended the day second fastest, half a second adrift of Rosberg’s mark. His Red Bull team, the only ones to beat Mercedes this year with Max Verstappen’s win in Spain, are hoping to pose a genuine threat to their German rivals at a circuit that should suit their car.
 Sebastian Vettel, who won the race last year, was third in his Ferrari ahead of Verstappen. His teammate Kimi Raikkonen was sixth.
 McLaren, who are also expecting an improvement in form, ended both sessions seventh and eighth with Fernando Alonso ahead of Jenson Button, on a track where both claimed their maiden Formula One wins.
 The Force India cars of Nico Hulkenberg and Sergio Perez rounded out the top 10.
 Hamilton’s accident was the only high-profile incident of the session, run in hot conditions with track temperatures in the forties. The crash prompted a brief red-flag stoppage as track marshals worked to the repair damage to the barrier.