@ValtteriBottas tops mixed-conditioned #BritishGP FP1 session. #F1

Bottas British GP FP1 – Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas was quickest in a damp FP1 session at the British GP ahead of former team-mate Mercedes’ Sir Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz who rounded out the top three.

The Finn was fighting at the front of the order with Ferrari pairing Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc for much of the hour-long opening session, taking third place with his initial effort, a 1:46.056.

Leclerc lead proceedings early on, with Sainz then taking top spot, before Bottas relegated the duo, posting a 1:42.249 with five minutes remaining on the clock.

Free Practice 1 was forced to end early after Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll ran wide on the wet patches at Copse Corner, losing the rear of his AMR22 racer and ending up beached in the gravel trap.

Hamilton made a late improvement to second, wounding up 0.532 off his former team-mate, whilst Sainz and Leclerc ended opening practice in third and fourth respectively for the Scuderia.

Heavy, dark rain clouds hit the famous Silverstone Circuit ahead of the session, with steady showers bringing with it a slow start to running.

Mercedes pairing Hamilton and George Russell were the first to hit their home track with cheers from the crowd, whilst the Ferrari duo of Sainz and Leclerc followed out after.

Both Britons and Sainz opted for an installation lap then returned to the pits, whilst Leclerc went on and posted the first time on the board with a 1:47.769.

Mixed conditions on the 5.891km Silverstone Circuit made things tricky for the teams, with the track far more wetter around Copse, whilst heading from Stowe up to the Hamilton Straight remained dry.

Leclerc improved to a 1:43.801 on his next flyer, which remained the only effort for ten minutes, before AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda posted a 1:51.373.

Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel was next on track, before team-mate Stroll jumped into second place, ten seconds adrift of Leclerc.

Sainz was next to register a lap, with a 1:49 putting the Spaniard behind his team-mate, before improving on his following tour to take P1 with a 1:42.967.

A momentous flurry of flying laps saw Haas F1 Team’s Kevin Magnussen take second place from Leclerc to split the Ferrari pairing before Sainz’s second effort, whilst the Alfa Romeo duo switched third place, with Zhou setting a 1:46.171 before Bottas went over 0.1 seconds quicker.

The former Mercedes driver then posted a 1:43.437 to split the Ferrari pairing, running just under 0.4 seconds in-front of Leclerc in third.

Less than half the grid had registered times on the board at the midway point of proceedings, with the rain then resuming to further cause trouble.

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, who had posted just one installation tour with 20 minutes remaining, was seen chatting to his father Jos in the team garage, whilst Hamilton emerged to wave to the fans.

The seven-time world champion emerged in his F1 W13 Silver Arrow with ten minutes left on the clock, battling through a damp sector two and a strong headwind into turn 15 to take seventh place on 1:49.476, and over 6.5 seconds ahead of Sainz before gaining over five seconds on his next hot-lap.

Bottas improved to second place to split the Ferrari duo before claiming top of the order, before much of the field re-joined the track with five minutes left as conditions slowly got better.

Hamilton’s late push to second dropped Sainz and Leclerc, but was not enough to take P1.

Haas F1 Team’s Mick Schumacher and Magnussen were fifth and seventh respectively as Alfa Romeo’s Zhou Gunayu sandwiched the pairing in sixth.

Stroll took eighth on the time-sheets despite his late shunt, with Tsunoda and Vettel completing the top ten.

Russell, Perez, Ocon, Alonso, Albon, Ricciardo, Gasly, Norris, Latifi and reigning world champion Verstappen all did not record a lap time.

You can see the full Formula 1 Lenovo British Grand Prix 2022 Free Practice 1 Results Classification at the link: https://www.skysports.com/f1/grandprix/great-britain/results

#F1 @Lenovo #BritishGP 2022 Preview. #Formula1 #BritishGrandPrix