Hamilton quickest, Grosjean crashes in Silverstone FP1
Lewis Hamilton began his home Formula 1 race weekend in convincing fashion by setting the fastest time for Mercedes through opening practice for the British Grand Prix on Friday, finishing three-tenths of a second clear of teammate Valtteri Bottas.
Chasing a fifth consecutive victory at Silverstone on Sunday, Hamilton was able to turn in a fastest lap time of 1m27.487s to top the timesheets in FP1, leading Mercedes to a one-two finish.
Lewis Hamilton began his home Formula 1 race weekend in convincing fashion by setting the fastest time for Mercedes through opening practice for the British Grand Prix on Friday, finishing three-tenths of a second clear of teammate Valtteri Bottas.
Chasing a fifth consecutive victory at Silverstone on Sunday, Hamilton was able to turn in a fastest lap time of 1m27.487s to top the timesheets in FP1, leading Mercedes to a one-two finish.
The session was not entirely straightforward for Hamilton, who reported at one stage that he was "not comfortable in the car," as well as complaining about the bumps on the circuit following its resurfacing ahead of this year's race.
The four-time world champion was able to find his feet on the Soft compound tyre to finish P1 ahead of Bottas in second place, with title rival and current drivers' championship leader Sebastian Vettel slotting into third place for Ferrari, finishing half a second back from Hamilton at the front.
Daniel Ricciardo took fourth for Red Bull ahead of Kimi Raikkonen in the second Ferrari, while Austria race winner Max Verstappen took sixth after opting to only run on the Medium compound tyre through FP1. Verstappen's session came to an early end with five minutes remaining when he was forced to park his car up on the main straight, with his engineer telling him "not to shift and park the car" due to an issue.
Romain Grosjean finished as the top midfield driver in seventh place for Haas, but his session came to an early end when he became the first driver to get caught out using DRS at Abbey - a new allowance for 2018 - after forgetting to close the flap on the rear of his car.
No driver deliberately braved using DRS through the corner, instead opting to manually close it through the corner before re-opening it once the corner had been completed, offering a boost on the run through Farm before hitting the brakes at Village.
However, Grosjean forgot to press the button to close DRS, causing his car to pirouette off the circuit at Abbey and run through the gravel before hitting the barrier, damaging the front-left of his Haas VF-18.
Grosjean was quick to apologise to the team over the radio and explain his error, having left his mechanics with a repair job to complete ahead of second practice later today.
Force India put in an impressive display in opening practice for its home race as Sergio Perez and Esteban Ocon finished eighth and ninth respectively, while Williams' Lance Stroll managed to round out the top 10 in FP3.
Marcus Ericsson took 11th for Sauber, finishing two places ahead of teammate Charles Leclerc as they were split by Toro Rosso's Pierre Gasly, who struggled with his tyres through the session, calling them "completely hopeless."
Kevin Magnussen ended FP1 14th for Haas, but is set to meet with the stewards after the session over a "potentially dangerous manoeuvre" when he went wheel-to-wheel with Fernando Alonso in the first sector. Alonso claimed that Magnussen "tried to hit me" and called it "very dangerous driving". The McLaren driver ended the session just behind Magnussen in the timesheets, finishing P15.
Carlos Sainz Jr. took 16th for Renault ahead of Stoffel Vandoorne in the second McLaren, while Nico Hulkenberg finished two places behind his teammate in P18. Toro Rosso's Brendon Hartley was left down in 19th after being frustrated by traffic, only beating Williams' Sergey Sirotkin in P20, who propped up the timesheets.
