Hamilton edges Rosberg while Vettel runs new Halo

2016 British Grand Prix first practice

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Mercedes were comfortably quickest in the first practice session at Silverstone but there was little to choose between their two drivers.

Both W07s set their fastest time on medium compound tyres, Lewis Hamilton leading the way by just three hundredths of a second. The pair had eight tenths of a second in hand over their closest pursuers, the first of which used soft tyres to set their times.

They were led by Nico Hulkenberg, the Force India driver pipping fellow soft tyre running Sebastian Vettel by nine-thousandths.

Vettel ran with the new Halo head protection prototype on his car for his first run but the structure was removed for subsequent runs. He also reported a gearbox problem as he returned to the pits – the Ferrari drivers has already had two grid penalties for gearbox changes this season.

Daniel Ricciardo was fifth-quickest after running hard and medium compound tyres on his Red Bull, but was over 1.1s slower than the Mercedes. He was separated by fourth tenths of a second from team mate Max Verstappen, the two RB12s split by the second Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen.

Early in the session Fernando Alonso held third place for McLaren before slipping to the foot of the top ten behind Sergio Perez and Carlos Sainz Jnr.

Charles Leclerc made his F1 practice debut at the wheel of Esteban Gutierrez’s Haas. He ended the session 1.4 seconds slower than Romain Grosjean after spinning at Village. He was just a few hundredths of a second faster than returning Renault tester Esteban Ocon.

Pos.No.DriverCarBest lapGapLaps
144Lewis HamiltonMercedes1’31.65430
26Nico RosbergMercedes1’31.6870.03333
327Nico HulkenbergForce India-Mercedes1’32.4920.83830
45Sebastian VettelFerrari1’32.5010.84720
53Daniel RicciardoRed Bull-TAG Heuer1’32.7731.11930
67Kimi RaikkonenFerrari1’33.0391.38527
733Max VerstappenRed Bull-TAG Heuer1’33.2021.54822
811Sergio PerezForce India-Mercedes1’33.2351.58129
955Carlos Sainz JnrToro Rosso-Ferrari1’33.4461.79218
1014Fernando AlonsoMcLaren-Honda1’33.5271.87322
1126Daniil KvyatToro Rosso-Ferrari1’33.7382.08420
1222Jenson ButtonMcLaren-Honda1’34.1322.47824
1377Valtteri BottasWilliams-Mercedes1’34.2632.60938
1419Felipe MassaWilliams-Mercedes1’34.4562.80233
158Romain GrosjeanHaas-Ferrari1’34.5472.89324
1630Jolyon PalmerRenault1’34.7873.13329
1712Felipe NasrSauber-Ferrari1’34.8053.15120
1850Charles LeclercHaas-Ferrari1’35.8694.21525
1945Esteban OconRenault1’35.9804.32630
209Marcus EricssonSauber-Ferrari1’36.0034.34919
2194Pascal WehrleinManor-Mercedes1’36.1364.48224
2288Rio HaryantoManor-Mercedes1’36.6474.99328

First practice visual gaps

Lewis Hamilton – 1’31.654

+0.033 Nico Rosberg – 1’31.687

+0.838 Nico Hulkenberg – 1’32.492

+0.847 Sebastian Vettel – 1’32.501

+1.119 Daniel Ricciardo – 1’32.773

+1.385 Kimi Raikkonen – 1’33.039

+1.548 Max Verstappen – 1’33.202

+1.581 Sergio Perez – 1’33.235

+1.792 Carlos Sainz Jnr – 1’33.446

+1.873 Fernando Alonso – 1’33.527

+2.084 Daniil Kvyat – 1’33.738

+2.478 Jenson Button – 1’34.132

+2.609 Valtteri Bottas – 1’34.263

+2.802 Felipe Massa – 1’34.456

+2.893 Romain Grosjean – 1’34.547

+3.133 Jolyon Palmer – 1’34.787

+3.151 Felipe Nasr – 1’34.805

+4.215 Charles Leclerc – 1’35.869

+4.326 Esteban Ocon – 1’35.980

+4.349 Marcus Ericsson – 1’36.003

+4.482 Pascal Wehrlein – 1’36.136

+4.993 Rio Haryanto – 1’36.647

Drivers more then ten seconds off the pace omitted.

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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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15 comments on “Hamilton edges Rosberg while Vettel runs new Halo”

  1. Does anyone know why the curbs are painted Black/White this year and not the usual Red/White?
    (Or could it be that my live stream wasn’t showing the proper colouring?)

    1. They said on C4 it was just to save money. They don’t have to repaint the black bits so I guess it makes sense.

      1. I heard the EU controls the supply of red paint and wouldn’t give the UK any….

  2. I was looking forward to LeClerc doing well. Little underwhelmed by the time he has posted. Hope he was doing an entirely different testing program than Grosjean

    1. if this goes ahead I hope they mount a camera right at the front of the halo.

      It looks odd on the T-Cam though

      1. Never thought of that. Recently they have reintroduced eye level cameras but on the sides and I think they are awesome. They tried in the drivers helmet but it never quite worked for me. Now they can put a camera in the halo. It is eye level and dead centre.

      2. @johnmilk I’ve been told that the regulations will prevent anything extra been mounted onto it & that given what the final version of it is likely to be they wouldn’t be able to even if they wanted to.

        “Recently they have reintroduced eye level cameras but on the sides”

        They never went away, They have been used regularly over the years. The only thing that is different this year is that they are using narrower angle lenses.
        I personally am not a fan of the narrower angle lenses as they remove a lot of the sense of speed. The primary reason we went towards wider angle lenses in 97/98 (Along with the majority of other racing categories) was because wider angle lenses generate a much greater sense of speed.

        1. @gt-racer there is plenty of room to put a camera in the triangular section, there plenty of small cameras that can do a good job witouth compromising function.

          If not prettu much any on-board camera will be spoiled by the halo

          1. Ups, sorry for the terrible English

    2. I don’t mind the Halo from an external view, but from these onboards it looks pretty awful.. Then again, aesthetics tend to trail safety measures in F1 by a few years; the stepped noses of 2012, oddy shaped cars of 2009, oddly shaped cars of 1998, the high cockpit edges of 1996 all looked awkward at first but eventually smoothed out.

  3. Interesting: Max set his time as the only one on Hard tires.

  4. I think that the halo for next year will and should be incorporated into the headrest body work instead of having its own attachment points and support either side of the driver. I think that the reason they have supports on this version is because they’re just bolting it on to an existing car. If they designed the cockpit area while taking the halo into account, they’d come up with a much more sleeker and visually appealing design

  5. Does anyone know if teams are using race engines or old reused engines for practice ?

  6. petebaldwin (@)
    8th July 2016, 15:34

    Interesting looking at the team-mate battles. The stronger driver (in my opinion) has beaten the inferior one in every single team.

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