British GP: Hamilton quickest as Mercedes dominates FP1

Hamilton's best of 1:31.654, set with Pirelli's medium tyres, was 0.033s seconds quicker than Rosberg, as the first non-Mercedes car finished nearly a full second off the pace.

Force India's Nico Hulkenberg wound up third, ahead of the Ferrari of Sebastian Vettel, the only other man within a second of Hamilton's time.

Daniel Ricciardo was 1.1 seconds off the pace in fifth, ahead of the recently-renewed Kimi Raikkonen in the second Ferrari.

Max Verstappen, Sergio Perez, Carlos Sainz and Fernando Alonso completed the top 10 in a session without any significant incidents.

Ferrari junior Charles Leclerc was the quickest of the Friday drivers in the Haas, finishing in 18th, right in front of Esteban Ocon, who was driving Kevin Magnussen's Renault.

The Sauber team's day did not go to plan on the Swiss squad's first day with the upgraded Ferrari engine, both its cars spending a lot of time in the garage.

Marcus Ericsson only set a time with 15 minutes to go, while Felipe Nasr's running was also limited.

Story of the session

The session started under cloudy skies, on a cold and windy day at the British track, and it was Ricciardo who posted the first time of the session on Pirelli's hard tyres.

Teammate Verstappen swiftly moved to the top of times with a 1:35.195 as Ferrari completed a run with the revised Halo attached to Vettel's car.

The medium-shod Mercedes of Rosberg went quickest before the 20-minute mark, the German opening a 1.5-second gap to his closest rival before Hamilton outpaced him with a 1:33.318.

A series a fast laps from the Mercedes duo saw them exchange the top spot several times, with Hamilton winning the battle with a 1:32.478, 0.167s quicker than his teammate.

Leclerc, making his F1 practice debut with Haas, spun at Turn 3 at the one-hour mark, but the Monegasque managed to rejoin without further drama.

Rosberg set the first 1:31 of the session with 43 minutes to go, the championship leader opening an eight-tenths gap to Hamilton, who reacted by going quickest with a 1:31.654, 0.033s quicker than Rosberg.

The Mercedes pair were over two seconds clear of their closest rival at that point.

With less than 30 minutes left on the clock, Hulkenberg closed to within a second to move up to third, as Vettel also improved to slot into fourth in the quickest Ferrari.

The German reported gearbox problems over the radio just as the session ended. 

Practice times:

Cla	Driver	Chassis	Engine	Laps	Time	Gap	Interval
1	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	Mercedes	30	1'31.654
2	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	Mercedes	33	1'31.687	0.033	0.033
3	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India	Mercedes	30	1'32.492	0.838	0.805
4	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	Ferrari	20	1'32.501	0.847	0.009
5	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull	TAG	30	1'32.773	1.119	0.272
6	Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari	Ferrari	28	1'33.039	1.385	0.266
7	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	TAG	22	1'33.202	1.548	0.163
8	Sergio Perez	Force India	Mercedes	29	1'33.235	1.581	0.033
9	Carlos Sainz Jr.	Toro Rosso	Ferrari	18	1'33.446	1.792	0.211
10	Fernando Alonso	McLaren	Honda	22	1'33.527	1.873	0.081
11	Daniil Kvyat	Toro Rosso	Ferrari	20	1'33.738	2.084	0.211
12	Jenson Button	McLaren	Honda	24	1'34.132	2.478	0.394
13	Valtteri Bottas	Williams	Mercedes	38	1'34.263	2.609	0.131
14	Felipe Massa	Williams	Mercedes	34	1'34.456	2.802	0.193
15	Romain Grosjean	Haas	Ferrari	24	1'34.547	2.893	0.091
16	Jolyon Palmer	Renault	Renault	29	1'34.787	3.133	0.240
17	Felipe Nasr	Sauber	Ferrari	21	1'34.805	3.151	0.018
18	Charles Leclerc	Haas	Ferrari	25	1'35.869	4.215	1.064
19	Esteban Ocon	Renault	Renault	31	1'35.980	4.326	0.111
20	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber	Ferrari	19	1'36.003	4.349	0.023
21	Pascal Wehrlein	Manor	Mercedes	25	1'36.136	4.482	0.133
22	Rio Haryanto	Manor	Mercedes	29	1'36.647	4.993	0.511