Mercedes lead the way as Williams suffer double blow

2014 British Grand Prix first practice

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Nico Rosberg headed the times in a disrupted first practice session at Silverstone which saw a high-speed accident for Felipe Massa.

The Williams driver ran wide at Stowe corner early in the session, lost control of his car on the run-off at the exit, and spun into the barrier on the inside. Massa was uninjured, but the session was stopped for over a quarter of an hour while the accident scene was cleared up.

This proved useful for Williams as their other car had already come to a stop and could now be recovered. Susie Wolff had only completed four laps when the oil pressure dropped in her Mercedes power unit, causing her to stop at Club corner. But although her car was brought back to the pits the team were unable to repair it in time for her to rejoin.

Wolff was one of two drivers participating in an official F1 session for the first time. The other, Force India’s Daniel Juncadella, had a largely problem-free run in Nico Hulkenberg’s car.

Marcus Ericsson spun off in the high-speed Becketts sequences and the yellow flags were out for several laps while his car was recovered. This came at an inconvenient time for Lewis Hamilton as he tried to beat his team mate’s mark.

The result was Rosberg ended the session quickest by over seven tenths of a second from Hamilton, who was just a tenth of a second ahead of Fernando Alonso. As usual Ferrari ran with a lower fuel load in the first session, as indicated by a radio message from Force India to Sergio Perez.

Daniel Ricciardo was fourth fastest for Red Bull despite suffering a gearbox problem. However Pastor Maldonado’s problems in the Lotus were more series – he failed even to set a time.

Pos. No. Driver Car Best lap Gap Laps
1 6 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1’35.424 25
2 44 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1’36.155 0.731 22
3 14 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1’36.263 0.839 23
4 3 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull-Renault 1’36.623 1.199 21
5 7 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 1’36.706 1.282 23
6 1 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1’36.921 1.497 20
7 22 Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 1’36.963 1.539 25
8 26 Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso-Renault 1’37.175 1.751 29
9 25 Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso-Renault 1’37.227 1.803 25
10 20 Kevin Magnussen McLaren-Mercedes 1’37.231 1.807 30
11 11 Sergio Perez Force India-Mercedes 1’37.720 2.296 22
12 8 Romain Grosjean Lotus-Renault 1’37.910 2.486 21
13 21 Esteban Gutierrez Sauber-Ferrari 1’38.056 2.632 18
14 34 Daniel Juncadella Force India-Mercedes 1’38.083 2.659 23
15 36 Giedo van der Garde Sauber-Ferrari 1’38.328 2.904 19
16 17 Jules Bianchi Marussia-Ferrari 1’38.917 3.493 12
17 19 Felipe Massa Williams-Mercedes 1’39.461 4.037 7
18 4 Max Chilton Marussia-Ferrari 1’39.814 4.390 24
19 9 Marcus Ericsson Caterham-Renault 1’40.597 5.173 19
20 46 Robin Frijns Caterham-Renault 1’42.261 6.837 11
21 41 Susie Wolff Williams-Mercedes 1’44.212 8.788 4
22 13 Pastor Maldonado Lotus-Renault

Image © Daimler/Hoch Zwei

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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27 comments on “Mercedes lead the way as Williams suffer double blow”

  1. Really feel bad for Susie Wolff

    1. DK (@seijakessen)
      4th July 2014, 14:06

      I don’t. I was ecstatic over it.

      Blatant PR stunt.

      She’s a hack driver with little to no real ability, and is only there because she is attractive-looking enough to garner eyeballs. Her efforts in the DTM were laughable, and she did nothing there.

      1. Interesting, I’d never looked up her race results before. Certainly doesn’t look like a stand-out driver, although I know nothing about DTM or how competitive her team was. Sounds like Danica 2.0, but I could be wrong. Talented or not, I would’ve liked to have seen how she got on in the car for more than a few laps.

        Ah well, all the more reason to be excited about Simona de Silvestro!

  2. What a nightmare for Susie :(

    1. davey (@djdaveyp87)
      4th July 2014, 23:27

      Yeah, I hope she gets another opportunity. Read so much sexism on the internet today, it’s appalling.

  3. I think at least we can take something positive from this event – Susie Wolff is faster than Pastor Maldonaldo!

  4. Magnificent Geoffrey (@magnificent-geoffrey)
    4th July 2014, 11:40

    Gutted for Susie.

    At least she has the opportunity to get a proper run again at Hockenheim.

  5. No guys Susie’s slowness is nothing genetic her engine had a problem.

    1. Na, it was her two big womanly X chromosomes weighing her down, probably broke the engine too ;)

    2. She isnt slow because she is a woman.

    3. If susie was fast she would have had won something on her career.

  6. and Daniel Juncadella is only 0.3 slower than Perez in same car.

    1. Yea, because FP1 is the perfect time to judge the competitiveness of a car/driver!

      1. If it were, Alonso would be dominating this season!

  7. Man as a Ham fan Ros is really worrying me, did Ham have a problem?

    1. I didn’t see anything reported. I wouldn’t make too much of the times. They try a lot of different things in practice sessions so it doesn’t necessarily mean Hamilton is that much slower. If he is out-qualified again then you can start to worry.

    2. Ericsson’s spin was ahead of Hamilton on his late quick lap – yellows will have been bad for his time.

      1. Yeah, no reason NR and LH won’t be within a tenth of each other either way when all is said and done.

    3. red and yellow flags slowed lewis down.

      1. Thanks guys i got to watch last 10 min. Nico slow down haha. I think this championship will be decided on qualifying, we don’t see merc’s passing eachother do we/

  8. And Massa loses it in Silvestone again! Just like in Canada and… erhm, he didnt lose it in Monaco, did he?

  9. Who’s that SIMON Wolff at the bottom of the timesheets? I’ve just looked up his DTM and F3 results and im surprised he’s been given a chance at this level.

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    1. @elbasque Could say the same about Maxine Chilton.

      1. @keithcollantine, aha yes!

        Although in this current pandering climate, with the triumvirate of money, British nationality and female gender, I get the feeling Maxine would keep her place even if she drove backwards.

  10. What happened with the live coverage of this session of the British Grand Prix by the British Broadcasting Corporation? The world feed is left with 1 minute and 19 seconds remaining. Lee closes the programme. We then get to see an advert for a radio programme followed by an advert for a railway documentary. Finally the next programme starts, Daily Politics, a full 6 seconds after the chequered flag was due to be shown. Broadcasters losing interest as well…

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