Valtteri Bottas led teammate Lewis Hamilton by a tenth of a second as Mercedes comfortably led the way in Practice 1 for the 70th Anniversary Grand Prix.
On a scorching day at Silverstone, teams focused exclusively on the new C4 soft tyre for this weekend in the first 90 minutes of running, testing its speed and durability following the punctures that were seen in the race last Sunday.
Though there was no repeat of the failures, degradation was certainly very high with the compound lasting only around 10 laps before being significantly worn on both the front and rear-left.
When they were new the pace was unsurprisingly a little faster than last weekend with Bottas setting a 1m26.166s, which was 1.3s ahead of Max Verstappen’s best time from FP1 last Friday.
Hamilton was second, with a six-tenth gap back to Max Verstappen in third for Red Bull.
Nico Hulkenberg was confirmed at Racing Point for another weekend, this after Sergio Perez again tested positive for Covid-19 on Thursday.
And the German certainly impressed in fourth, ahead of Charles Leclerc in fifth for Ferrari.
Alex Albon and Sebastian Vettel benefitted from a much smoother start to the weekend in sixth and seventh, while Lance Stroll didn’t get a clean lap in eighth.
Daniil Kvyat was ninth as Esteban Ocon completed the top 10 for Renault.
Down the field, the two McLarens had a low-key start to the weekend with Lando Norris 12th and Carlos Sainz 14th.
Romain Grosjean put Haas in a higher-than-usual 13th, while George Russell indicated a fourth straight Q2 appearance is possible in 15th.
Daniel Ricciardo was down in 17th in the second Renault, with Robert Kubica 19th as he made another FP1 appearance for Alfa Romeo.
Kevin Magnussen brought up the field after locking the front-left tyre into Vale on his fastest lap.
Here’s how FP1 finished ?#F170 ?? #F1 pic.twitter.com/Gi4AQaKSay
— Formula 1 (@F1) August 7, 2020
