Hamilton leads in British GP first practice

The on-track duel between McLaren and Ferrari resumed at Silverstone and Lewis Hamilton was the first to make his mark in the opening practice for the British Grand Prix. The McLaren man clocked a best of 1:21.100 in cool but dry conditions and teammate Fernando Alonso was fourth fastest, half a second down.

Lewis Hamilton, McLaren Mercedes, MP4-22.

Photo by xpb.cc.

In between the McLarens were the Ferraris of Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa in second and third respectively. The scarlet duo spent much of the session at the top of the times, Massa ahead, but were demoted by Hamilton late on. Then Raikkonen improved ahead of his teammate -- the Finn was just fractionally over a tenth off Hamilton.

Nico Rosberg was the lead Williams in fifth and the second team car of Alex Wurz was eighth. Rosberg demoted the BMW Saubers of Robert Kubica and Nick Heidfeld from their usual best-of-the-rest places to sixth and seventh -- both were just slightly over a second off Hamilton's pace and Wurz was about a tenth off, the last to be in that time area.

Toyota's Ralf Schumacher, ninth, was nearly 1.8 off the top time and teammate Jarno Trulli was 11th. Separating the two was the Honda of Rubens Barrichello in 10th while Jenson Button was 15th and over two seconds off the lead in the second Honda. Super Aguri's Anthony Davidson managed 12th and teammate Takuma Sato was 16th.

The Renualts were two seconds off the top McLaren, Heikki Kovalainen 13th and Giancarlo Fisichella 14th. The Red Bulls were a further half a second adrift with Mark Webber 17th and David Coulthard 18th and sister team Toro Rosso had Scott Speed 19th and Tonio Liuzzi 21st. Adrian Sutil was the quicker Spyker in 20th and Christijan Albers was 22nd.

There were no surprises in this opening session -- a few off track moments, notably at Priory, but no major damage was done. The rain held off but only just and there is still a possibility of showers this afternoon. Final top eight classification: Hamilton, Raikkonen, Massa, Alonso, Rosberg, Kubica, Heidfeld, Wurz.