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British GP: Gasly sets pace in eventful FP1

Pierre Gasly topped a disrupted first practice session for Formula 1’s British Grand Prix that featured Romain Grosjean crashing in the pitlane and Kimi Raikkonen causing a red flag.

Pierre Gasly, Red Bull Racing RB15

Pierre Gasly, Red Bull Racing RB15

Dom Romney / Motorsport Images

Mercedes driver Valtteri Bottas set a 1m27.629s to head the times for the vast majority of the session, although light rain limited running in the final half an hour and distorted the order.

Lewis Hamilton completed an early Mercedes one-two, but was displaced by the Red Bulls of Pierre Gasly and Max Verstappen late on.

Gasly then improved again on his very last run to set a 1m27.173s and go almost half a second clear at the front.

The start of the session featured a series of spins as drivers got to grips with the newly-resurfaced Silverstone circuit, beginning with Romain Grosjean crashing his Haas while exiting the pitlane.

Grosjean lost the rear of his car as the pitlane exit jinked right and he broke his front wing against the barrier before briefly driving the wrong way down the pits to find space to turn around.

After that, British GP rookies George Russell and Lando Norris had spins of their own.

Williams driver Russell ended up on the grass after catching a wobble through the Brooklands left-hander and being spat off in the opposite direction.

Norris was left facing the wrong way on the run-off onto the start/finish straight in his McLaren, after losing the rear exiting the final corner.

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The session was then halted as Raikkonen’s Alfa Romeo was recovered after grinding to a halt on the entry to Luffield.

Replays showed a puff of smoke emerging from the rear of Raikkonen’s Alfa as he rounded Brooklands slowly, with the car appearing to have stuttered and then cut out down the Wellington Straight.

Once the session resumed, Hamilton, Bottas and Alex Albon had moments of varying severity through Brooklands, and at the same corner Grosjean compounded a difficult session by having another spin.

Light rain began to fall approaching the final half hour, sending most cars to the pitlane – although McLaren’s Carlos Sainz remained on track.

The drizzle never turned into heavy rain and stopped early enough for some drivers to squeeze in improvements in the dying minutes of the session.

Nobody lapped quickly enough to depose Bottas initially, but Gasly got close on a 1m27.715s that launched him to second.

As the chequered flag fell, Gasly completed another flying lap on soft tyres that put him well ahead.

Verstappen ended up third-fastest, 0.8s slower than his under-pressure teammate, with Hamilton fourth.

A late improvement from Charles Leclerc was only good enough for fifth-fastest, a second off the pace and just ahead of team-mate Sebastian Vettel.

Nico Hulkenberg and Daniel Ricciardo gave Renault a shot in the arm after the team’s poor Austrian GP by ending FP1 seventh and eighth. Albon and Sainz completed the top 10.

Session results

Cla # Driver Chassis Engine Laps Time Gap
1 10 France Pierre Gasly
Red Bull Honda 25 1'27.173
2 77 Finland Valtteri Bottas
Mercedes Mercedes 29 1'27.629 0.456
3 33 Netherlands Max Verstappen
Red Bull Honda 21 1'28.009 0.836
4 44 United Kingdom Lewis Hamilton
Mercedes Mercedes 26 1'28.122 0.949
5 16 Monaco Charles Leclerc
Ferrari Ferrari 21 1'28.253 1.080
6 5 Germany Sebastian Vettel
Ferrari Ferrari 21 1'28.304 1.131
7 27 Germany Nico Hulkenberg
Renault Renault 21 1'28.803 1.630
8 3 Australia Daniel Ricciardo
Renault Renault 24 1'29.031 1.858
9 23 Thailand Alex Albon
Toro Rosso Honda 26 1'29.093 1.920
10 55 Spain Carlos Sainz Jr.
McLaren Renault 31 1'29.162 1.989
11 4 United Kingdom Lando Norris
McLaren Renault 23 1'29.170 1.997
12 11 Mexico Sergio Perez
Racing Point Mercedes 27 1'29.453 2.280
13 26 Russian Federation Daniil Kvyat
Toro Rosso Honda 26 1'29.500 2.327
14 18 Canada Lance Stroll
Racing Point Mercedes 25 1'29.657 2.484
15 99 Italy Antonio Giovinazzi
Alfa Romeo Ferrari 24 1'30.099 2.926
16 20 Denmark Kevin Magnussen
Haas Ferrari 24 1'30.605 3.432
17 63 United Kingdom George Russell
Williams Mercedes 25 1'30.741 3.568
18 7 Finland Kimi Raikkonen
Alfa Romeo Ferrari 12 1'30.747 3.574
19 8 France Romain Grosjean
Haas Ferrari 22 1'30.811 3.638
20 88 Poland Robert Kubica
Williams Mercedes 27 1'32.121 4.948

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