Rain was falling and more showers were predicted. A classic Silverstone summer as track action for the 2022 British Grand Prix began earlier today with the first free practice session.
Once-dominant Mercedes have been beset with a bouncing car while Red Bull and Ferrari have been setting the pace in a new rules era. Of course, all eyes were on the Mercedes cars in front of the British fans and whether they would be able to give Lewis Hamilton and George Russell a car capable of coming close to their rivals.
Charles Leclerc trickled around for a 1:43.801 on his first timed lap on Intermediate tyres in the difficult conditions at Silverstone. Gradually, the track got dry as the rain stopped, a sign that we would be getting some more times imminently. Not for the first time in FP1, Lewis Hamilton headed out on an out lap before heading back to the pits. He was lighting the screens up purple, but Mercedes were seemingly focusing on aero tests while they could. George Russell did’t set a lap either during the first half of the session.
Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz was the quickest of nine drivers to have completed flying laps after 30 minutes, with his 1:42.9 four tenths quicker than Valtteri Bottas. Every driver was back in their garage with just 25 minutes left of this first practice. Eleven drivers were still to set a time, with Carlos Sainz top of the timesheet.
But the rain was falling again at Silverstone and, from the radars, it looked like these showers were here to stay until the end of first practice. All drivers were still in the garage, with teams seemingly not too keen on using up too many wet tyres given they may be needed for the rest of the weekend!
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Certainly mixed conditions at Silverstone and as the sun poked its head out again for a few moments, Lewis Hamilton finally broke Mercedes’ timesheets silence. It was a very tentative lap from Hamilton and he finished with a time six seconds slower than the F1-75 of Carlos Sainz. We then saw the Ferrari cars emerge for a brief lap but they headed straight back into the pits again, while Valtteri Bottas put in another time to take him top of the timesheet and in front of Carlos Sainz with a 1:42.249. The track was very busy as we prepared for a topsy turvy timesheet in these final three minutes. However, Lance Stroll’s Aston Martin could’t find the grip on the line and went off at Copse corner. He couldn’t get his car out of the gravel and that was the end of the session.
In amongst all the drama of the red flag, Lewis Hamilton snuck in a final lap to go +0.532s behind Valtteri Bottas at the top to finish P1 in 2nd place, with Scuderia Ferrari drivers Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc finishing in third and fourth place, followed by Mick Schumacher.
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