British GP: Rosberg quickest in FP1 despite problems

Rosberg's best of 1:34.274, set right at the end of the 90 minutes, was just 0.070 seconds quicker than Hamilton, who had dominated the session after the German had suffered a hydraulics failure early on.

Rosberg managed just 11 laps in the end, but still managed to have the edge over Hamilton in the end.

The Mercedes duo were miles in front of its rivals, with Toro Rosso's Max Verstappen in third, albeit over a second behind Rosberg.

Kimi Raikkonen was fourth for Ferrari, ahead of Carlos Sainz in the second Toro Rosso, the Faenza-based squad having a strong start to the weekend.

Sebastian Vettel finished in 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.

Susie Wolff was the fastest of the three Friday drivers on track today, the Williams tester finishing in 13th, with Lotus' Jolyon Palmer in 14th and Raffaele Marciello 15th in the Sauber.

The story of the session 

Rosberg was the first man to complete a timed lap, the German setting the early pace as teams took advantage of the extra set of tyres during the first half hour of running.

Hamilton was briefly on top of the times before he lost control of his car at Stowe, spinning after running too wide onto the AstroTurf.

There was further drama for Mercedes just a couple of minutes later, when Rosberg was asked to park his car after suffering a loss of hydraulic pressure after just five laps.

His car was taken back to the pits, but Rosberg only got back out with some six minutes of the session left.

After recovering from his spin, Hamilton went quickest with a lap of 1:35.536, improving to a 1:35.391 on his following lap.

Still on the same run, Hamilton dipped into the 1:34s to set a benchmark that remained unbeaten.

The Mercedes driver would go even faster later in the session, improving to a 1:34.344.

The McLaren drivers spent most of the session in the garage, with Fernando Alonso completing his first timed lap with half a second left as the team did not want to stress the old Honda engine.

Teammate Jenson Button did an installation lap right at the start of the season, but did not return to the track until there were 10 minutes left on the clock. He finished down in 18th, behind Alonso.

British GP - Free Practice 1

	Driver	Team	Time	Gap	Laps
01	N. Rosberg	Mercedes	1:34.274		12
01	L. Hamilton	Mercedes	1:34.344	+0.070	26
03	M. Verstappen	Toro Rosso	1:35.530	+1.256	18
04	K. Raikkonen	Ferrari	1:35.588	+1.314	21
05	C. Sainz	Toro Rosso	1:35.669	+1.395	33
06	S. Vettel	Ferrari	1:35.739	+1.465	17
07	D. Ricciardo	Red Bull	1:35.818	+1.544	26
08	D. Kvyat	Red Bull	1:35.876	+1.602	22
09	N. Hulkenberg	Force India	1:36.157	+1.883	28
10	F. Massa	Williams	1:36.469	+2.195	23
11	F. Nasr	Sauber	1:36.855	+2.581	20
12	S. Perez	Force India	1:36.889	+2.615	26
13	S. Wolff	Williams	1:37.242	+2.968	19
14	J. Palmer	Lotus	1:37.262	+2.988	26
15	R. Marciello	Sauber	1:37.372	+3.098	17
16	P. Maldonado	Lotus	1:38.080	+3.806	8
17	F. Alonso	McLaren	1:38.222	+3.948	12
18	J. Button	McLaren	1:38.860	+4.586	10
19	W. Stevens	Manor	1:38.981	+4.707	23
20	R. Merhi	Manor	1:40.477	+6.203	23

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