British GP: The Mercedes parade begins in practice 1

Rosberg fastest but Hamilton sandbagging

Despite missing most of the session due to loss of hydraulic pressure, Nico Rosberg turned the fastest lap in opening practice for the British GP at Silverstone ahead of his Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton.

Hamilton, fastest early in the session, was instructed to sandbag the 2nd half by his team over the radio and to keep his lap times in the 1m38s range.

And even with that the two Mercedes drivers were comfortably ahead of everyone else. Max Verstappen was third fastest but over 1-second a lap slower and out to lunch.

Ferrari used the session for race setups and never showed their real speed. Meanwhile the McLaren-Honda is so slow both their drivers, Alonso and Button, were beaten by a girl – Susie Wolff who drove FP1 as a PR stunt and finished 13th, not bad.

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