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F1 British GP: Hamilton sweeps opening day as Rosberg hits trouble

Lewis Hamilton has maintained Mercedes' position at the top of the timesheets on the first day of action for the British Grand Prix at Silverstone after Nico Rosberg failed to make it out on track because of technical issues.

The German had complained of a potential problem on his W07 after FP1, with an investigation by Mercedes revealing a water leak that could not be fixed before the end of the FP2 session.

Forcing him onto the sidelines, his team-mate and title rival Hamilton was thus comfortably quickest with a 1min 31.660secs, marginally slower than he managed in FP1 - by 0.006s - despite using the soft tyres on this occasion.

Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen followed up in second and third for a strong Friday showing by the Red Bull Racing drivers, ahead of Ferrari duo Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen.

A positive start to the weekend for McLaren-Honda would have Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button up in sixth and ninth, the pair split by the Williams of Valtteri Bottas and Romain Grosjean in the best of the Haas'. Felipe Massa completed the top ten.

Though there were several off-track moments as the drivers found the limit of the Northamptonshire circuit, only Daniil Kvyat suffered a spin at the fast right-hander coming onto the home straight, albeit without consequence

Zdroj: crash.net