Practice 1 Report - Silver Silver

The Silver Arrows topped Free Practice 1 at Silverstone on Friday morning. Nico Rosberg set a time of 1:35.424 while his Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton clocked a 1:36.155.. Fernando Alonso (Ferrari) and Daniel Ricciardo (Red Bull) were third and fourth quickest respectively.

The ambient temperature at the start of the session was degrees 63 Fahrenheit (17 degrees Centigrade) and the track temperature was 27 degrees Fahrenheit (81 degrees Centigrade.)

Kevin Magnussen steered his McLaren out on to the 3.660-mile (5.891-km) 18-turn track as the 90 minute session began. Others soon followed him to do their own installation laps.

Lewis Hamilton discovered that the steering wheel was not installed straight - the right hand side was tilted down - on his Mercedes, and so he radioed the team and came in to have it adjusted.

10 minutes into the session, everybody had done an install lap but nobody had set a time. Included on that list was Susie Wolff who drove the Williams in FP1 in place of Valtteri Bottas. The last woman to take part in an official Formula 1 weekend was Giovanna Amati who failed to qualify her Brabham for the 1992 Brazilian Grand Prix.

12 minutes into the session, Marcus Ericsson set the first lap time of the session - 1:50.811 - in his Caterham. Wolff soon beat that with a 1:44.212.

20 minutes into the session, Wolff stopped her car at Turn 17 on her fifth lap and radioed in that the engine had lost oil pressure.

Other drivers soon went faster, and 26 minutes into the session, Nico Rosberg had his Mercedes on top with a time of 1:36.058.

Rosberg set his time moments before the red flags came out to stop the session after Felipe Massa crashed his Williams heavily coming out of Stowe Corner. He was unhurt, but this definitely was not a good morning for the Williams team at its home track.

The top 10 at the 30 mark and with the session still red flagged were: Rosberg, Fernando Alonso (Ferrari), Kimi Raikkonen (Ferrari), Daniel Ricciardo (Red Bull), Magnussen, Jean-Eric Vergne (Toro Rosso), Daniil Kvyat (Toro Rosso), Jenson Button (McLaren), Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) and Esteban Gutierrez (Sauber.)

Button was wearing a pink helmet in honor of his late father John who used to wear a pink shirt on race day at the track.

43 minutes into the session, the green lights came on. Kvyat was first out.

The clock had been running during the red flag, so the drivers had lost 17 minutes of running on track. So there was just over half of FP1 remaining. Wolff's Williams was brought back in on a truck during the stoppage, but it could not be repaired in time and her FP1 was over.

Raikkonen got going quickly and moved into second place with a time of 1:36.708. Sebastian Vettel moved his Red Bull up to sixth.

All the drivers were running Pirelli's hard compound slicks with the orange sidewalls.

With 32 minutes remaining in the session, Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) up to second with a time of 1:36.155 as Rosberg improved to a 1:35.424.

Hamilton then started a fast lap but it was spoiled by Ericsson who spun off at Becketts Corner and could not get going again because he could not get it into gear.

With 27 minutes remaining in the session, most drivers were in the pits while the marshals removed the stranded Caterham from Turn 13.

With 26 minutes remaining in the session, the track was clear of yellow flags. But most drivers remained in the pits. The top six were: Rosberg, Hamilton, Alonso, Ricciardo, Raikkonen and Vettel.

With 13 minutes remaining in the session, Ricciardo pitted as he radioed in that the car had gearbox problems.

With 11 minutes remaining in the session, the leading Mercedes duo was out on the track but had yet to improve on the times set earlier.

With 7 minutes remaining in the session, just about every driver was lapping. But most did not improve their lap times.

The top 10 at the end of FP1 were: Rosberg, Hamilton, Alonso, Ricciardo, Raikkonen, Vettel, Button, Kvyat, Vergne, and Magnussen.