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Red Bull’s Mark Webber set the pace in the first practice session for the British GP at a wet Silverstone circuit.
Although it was not all plain sailing for the Australian as he then ran out of fuel and coasted to a halt on the old pits at Woodcote.
With the introduction of a new ban on off-throttle blown diffusers, many expected the Red Bull drivers to suffer the most.
However Webber silenced the doubters as he crossed the line with a 1:46.603 to set the fastest time in P1 ahead of Michael Schumacher.
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Formula 1: British Grand Prix - First Practice Results
Rubens Barrichello was third in the timings, with Sauber’s Sergio Perez. SkySports
Midway through the session McLaren and Lewis Hamilton went out on slick tyres to try to understand how the car would react with a dry setup along Silverstone’s straights. It was a brave move as the intermediates were the only tyres suitable at the time, but it could give his team a bit of an advantage if the rest of the practice sessions are wet and qualifying and the race are dry.
With 15 minutes to go, Kamui Kobayashi got a little too brave and had a big accident on the pit straight while running on intermediates. He slewed wide coming out of the new final corner at Club and tried to keep his foot on the throttle while running on the Astroturf. His car pitched into a spin and took off on the raised grass before clobbering the wall, with the Japanese driver lucky he didn’t flip. It will now be a big ask for the Sauber team to get the car back in one piece for the start of second practice. ESPN F1
McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton was eighth with team-mate Jenson Button 15th and Paul di Resta 11th for Force India.
Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel - who leads the championship by 77 points - was 13th but the wet weather means little can be read into the times.
Ferrari ran Alonso and Felipe Massa on different programmes on Friday as they tested various aerodynamic updates with Alonso trying out a new rear wing. Massa finished fifth overall with Alonso, who had led much of Friday’s session, seventh.
Jaime Alguersuari followed up a strong performance for Toro Rosso in Canada and Valencia with the 10th fastest time at Silverstone.
It was also an encouraging morning for Australian Daniel Ricciardo, who spent his first session as a Hispania race driver after being loaned out by Toro Rosso for the rest of the season.
The Australian finished just 0.034secs shy of team-mate Tonio Liuzzi’s best time in his first run in the car. BBC Sport
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