FP1: Merc top; disaster for Williams

Nico Rosberg set the early benchmark at Silverstone on Friday, but Free Practice One turned into a nightmare for Williams.

Fresh from winning the Austrian GP and stretching his lead in the Drivers’ standings, Rosberg once again got the better of his Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton as he edged him to P1.

The German posted a 1:35.424, which was 0.731 better than that of Hamilton. Behind them it was a much better start to a race weekend for Ferrari with Fernando Alonso third fastest with a 1:36.354 and Raikkonen down in fifth. Sandwiched in between was Australian Daniel Ricciardo with his Red Bull team-mate Sebastian Vettel in sixth.

It was Williams who made the headlines in FP1 though as Susie Wolff made history when she became the first female in 22 years to take part in an official F1 race weekend.

She even posted the best time, a 1:44.212, during the early stages, but her morning lasted only four laps as her FW36 lost oil pressure and she was forced her to park her car. That was that for her.

Not long after it was her team-mate Felipe Massa whose session came to a premature halt, but this was his own fault as he went over the curb and lost control of his car. That resulted in a heavy crash after going wide at Stowe.

Although the session resumed after a 16-minute break, there were not too many changes to the timesheets. Ricciardo initially reported that “something funny’s going on” with his car but he was able to complete the session while Vettel and Romain Grosjean had late wobbles.

Grosjean’s Lotus team-mate Pastor Maldonado and Caterham pair Marcus Ericsson and Robin Frijns also didn’t have happy mornings as they spent most of it in the garage due to technical problems.

Times
01 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1m35.424s 25 laps
02 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1m36.155s +0.731s 22 laps
03 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1m36.263s +0.839s 23 laps
04 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull-Renault 1m36.623s +1.199s 21 laps
05 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 1m36.703s +1.279s 23 laps
06 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1m36.921s +1.497s 20 laps
07 Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 1m36.963s +1.539s 25 laps
08 Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso-Renault 1m37.175s +1.751s 29 laps
09 Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso-Renault 1m37.227s +1.803s 25 laps
10 Kevin Magnussen McLaren-Mercedes 1m37.231s +1.807s 30 laps
11 Sergio Perez Force India-Mercedes 1m37.720s +2.296s 22 laps
12 Romain Grosjean Lotus-Renault 1m37.910s +2.486s 21 laps
13. Esteban Gutierrez Sauber-Ferrari 1m38.056s +2.632s 18 laps
14. Daniel Juncadella Force India-Mercedes 1m38.083s +2.659s 23 laps
15 Giedo van der Garde Sauber-Ferrari 1m38.328s +2.904s 19 laps
16 Jules Bianchi Marussia-Ferrari 1m38.917s +3.493s 12 laps
17 Felipe Massa Williams-Mercedes 1m39.461s +4.037s 7 laps
18 Max Chilton Marussia-Ferrari 1m39.814s +4.390s 24 laps
19 Marcus Ericsson Caterham-Renault 1m40.597s +5.173s 19 laps
20 Robin Frijns Caterham-Renault 1m42.261s +6.837s 11 laps
21. Susie Wolff Williams-Mercedes 1m44.212s +8.788s 4 laps
22 Pastor Maldonado Lotus-Renault no time 2 laps

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