British GP Practice One: Lewis Hamilton leads Mercedes charge
Hamilton leads Merc one-two, Vettel 0.511s back; Verstappen suffers gearbox failure; British GP underway at 2.10pm on Sunday
Monday 10 December 2018 08:56, UK
Lewis Hamilton got his British GP weekend off to the perfect start by topping the first practice session as Mercedes stole a march on their rivals.
In front of a bumper Silverstone crowd in glorious sunshine, home favourite Hamilton stormed to a 1:27.487 on soft tyres and led a Mercedes one-two with team-mate Valtteri Bottas, equipped with a new engine, 0.367s adrift.
Championship leader Sebastian Vettel was the closest challenger in the Ferrari but more than half a second off the pace, ahead of Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo and team-mate Kimi Raikkonen.
Max Verstappen was sixth, but more worryingly for him and Red Bull, crawled to a halt towards the end of the session after suffering a gearbox failure.
Christian Horner, however, confirmed it was a Friday gearbox and wouldn't affect their weekend.
"We just need to understand what caused it," the Red Bull boss told Sky F1. "I think it's more hardware than software."
But Horner added that the team were losing 0.9s to the Mercedes on the Silverstone straights due to their engine power deficit.
Mercedes, unbeaten at the iconic Northamptonshire circuit since 2012, came into the weekend under pressure after their double mechanical DNF in Austria and even fitted Bottas with a fresh engine as a precautionary measure, but the early running suggests they are still very much the team to beat.
Their latest Friday domination also means they have topped six of the seven practice sessions since introducing their new upgraded power unit in France, though Ferrari often turn their engines down before ramping it up in qualifying.
Hamilton, aiming for a record-breaking fifth Silverstone victory in a row and sixth in total, also looks to be in fine form.
Following on from his impressive Spielberg weekend, Romain Grosjean topped the midfield in seventh but also caused the major incident of P1 - spinning and crashing out in his Haas.
Grosjean followed the lead of many other drivers by having DRS enabled on full throttle through the high-speed Turn one, but lost control of his car and his session was soon ended.
He will also miss Practice Two due to a forced chassis change.
Joining him in the top-10 were Force India's Sergio Perez and Esteban Ocon, helped by upgrades, along with Lance Stroll as Williams enjoyed a rare return towards the front of the midfield.
Following a chaotic week behind the scenes, with team chief Eric Boullier resigning, McLaren finished the session a disappointing 15th and 17th as they trialled new parts on MCL33, with Fernando Alonso the lead car.
Alonso once again endured a frustrating start to his weekend, duelling on track with Kevin Magnussen who he claimed over team radio "almost hit me twice". Magnussen will report to race stewards over the incident.
