Silverstone, FP1: Rosberg quickest in first practice despite problems

Nico Rosberg set the fastest time of the opening practice session for the British Grand Prix, despite missing most of the session due to hydraulic problems.

The German stopped on track just 18 minutes into the session. He pulled over on the inside of the Becketts complex after being asked by his Mercedes team to stop the car. The car was recovered and Rosberg spent the bulk of the session in the garage. He reappeared six minutes before the end of running, and managed to outpace team-mate Lewis Hamilton by just seven hundredths of a second with a lap of 1:34.274. Rosberg only managed 11 laps in the session.

Up to that point, late in the session, Hamilton had dominated the session. After recovering from an early spin, the Briton went quickest with a lap of 1:35.536, and at the half hour mark led the field with a lap of 1:34.815. That was just under a second clear of Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen, with Rosberg third and Red Bull Racing’s Daniel Ricciardo fourth.

Hamilton eventually improved to a best lap of 1:34.344, which stood as the morning’s best until Rosberg reappeared, having undergone a gearbox change, and jumped to the top of the list.

Behind them, Toro Rosso’s Max Verstappen was third quickest, albeit over a second behind Rosberg. Kimi Raikkonen was fourth, though the Ferrari driver’s session wasn’t without issue.

An hour into the session Raikkonen was told to make his way back to the garage as there was an MGU-H problem. He would reappear however and ended the session with a best time of 1:35.588.

Raikkonen was followed by the second Toro Rosso of Carlos Sainz, while Sebastian Vettel was sixth in the second Ferrari, ahead of the two Red Bulls of Daniel Ricciardo and Daniil Kvyat.

Nico Hulkenberg in the updated Force India and Felipe Massa in the Williams completed the top ten.

Williams Susie Wolff was the fastest of the three Friday drivers on track this morning. The Scot set finished in 13th place, with a best time of 1:37.242. That put here 2.968s down on Rosberg’s time. The Williams tester got through 19 laps, however, a better return than her appearance for the team here last when here car failed on its installation lap.

Wolff finished seven tenths of a second adrift of team-mate Felipe Massa but she was ahead of fellow testers Jolyon Palmer of Lotus and Raffaele Marciello of Sauber who were 14th and 15th respectively.