Vettel tops first British GP practice session

The drivers were finally able to drive through the new section of Silverstone circuit, this morning, as practice for the British GP got underway.

Even if they were eager to sample this new section, the drivers went through their usual installation runs at first and then returned to the pits waiting for their engineers to give them the all-clear to kick off their working program.

Reigning World Champion was the first to get back on track, with 20 minutes gone. The Briton set the early benchmark at a 1’35’’580 as he completed a five-lap run to give his McLaren Mercedes team some early data to analyze as the Woking-based team is running a new exhaust package on a heavily-revised MP4-25 this weekend.

A few other drivers then left the pits to post times on the board. Red Bull’s Mark Webber didn’t wait long before establishing himself at the top of the timesheets with a lap of 1’34’’681. The Australian is racing a new chassis this weekend, following his heavy crash in Valencia. He quickly upped the pace and was the first to lap under the 1’34 bracket.

At the half way point, ten drivers – including Sebastian Vettel and Fernando Alonso - were still to post a time. It was Rosberg who was leading, from Webber, Kubica, Hulkenberg and Barrichello.

Vettel then joined in the fun and took over at the front with forty minutes remaining. He set a 1’33’’370 fastest lap but further improved to lower the target time down to a 1’32’’280. Robert Kubica moved his Renault up to 2nd with a 1’32’’762.

With two thirds of the session gone, Webber improved to 2nd. He was nonetheless relegated to fourth by Hamilton and Kubica as they entered in the final quarter of the session.

Most of the drivers looked for some improvement in the last minutes but there was no change in the hierarchy as the yellow flags were brought out – Fauzy stopped his Lotus in the third split.

So Vettel topped this first practice session. Hamilton finished just over three-tenths of a second down on the German in second, with Kubica third, Webber fourth and Sutil fifth.