England – Free Practice 1: Gasly surprises, nightmare session for Grosjean

Formula 1 spends its weekend at home in Great Britain at the Silverstone circuit. This first free practice session takes place under gray skies and, even though a few showers are expected this afternoon, the track remains dry for an hour before experiencing a few raindrops in the last half hour.

It’s a classic start to the weekend for the drivers and teams who complete a few laps at the beginning of the session to check if everything is working correctly on the cars. In fact, Charles Leclerc and Ferrari identify a slight brake issue, which is resolved fairly quickly.

It takes a good twenty minutes for the drivers to finally set a time, with the first benchmark set by Lando Norris in the McLaren, ahead of Nico Hülkenberg in his Renault and the two Williams.

But this good momentum is interrupted by Romain Grosjean, who loses control of his Haas in the pit exit lane. The Frenchman spins as he deactivates the “pit limiter” to take to the track. He tears off his front wing against the barriers on the right and has to make a U-turn against traffic to get back on track and complete a slow lap to return to his pit. On the way, Grosjean loses a part of his car, forcing race control to activate the Virtual Safety Car to clean the track. The weekend is off to a bad start for Haas and the Frenchman…

🙈 @RGrosjean #BritishGP 🇬🇧 #F1 pic.twitter.com/TN0w9N1hqH

— Formula 1 (@F1) 12 juillet 2019

Once the track is cleared, the big guns hit the track, and Valtteri Bottas’s Mercedes goes straight to the top of the timesheets with a 1:28.562, while his teammate Lewis Hamilton encounters an issue with activating his DRS. As a good British subject, George Russell tends to the grass at Brooklands corner after losing control of his Williams.

On the new asphalt of Silverstone, many drivers make mistakes, like Charles Leclerc, who recovers before going off track, and Lando Norris, who spins his McLaren.

But it is not these minor off-track excursions that are going to cause the first red flag of the weekend, but rather the stoppage of Kimi Räikkönen’s Alfa Romeo whose engine seized during action in the Luffield corner. The session is over for the Finn who is pushed back to his pit by the track marshals, sitting side-saddle on his single-seater!

What’s Kimi pointing at?! 🤔

Marshals push Räikkönen off track after the Finn breaks down in FP1 #BritishGP 🇬🇧 #F1 pic.twitter.com/zNH6Oo7Ecc

— Formula 1 (@F1) 12 juillet 2019

With all these twists and turns, the mid-session standings aren’t very revealing. Bottas leads Hamilton in first place, with Max Verstappen and Pierre Gasly following ahead of Sergio Pérez, who places his Racing Point in 5th position, ahead of the two Ferraris.

Romain Grosjean returns to the track with a new front wing following his mishap at the beginning of the session, but the day is undoubtedly going very poorly for the Haas driver, who once again loses control of his car during his fast lap, although without damage this time. Completely lost in the development of the VF-19, the Haas team has decided to provide Romain Grosjean with a car of the same type that participated in the Australian Grand Prix at the beginning of the season. It must be noted that the time difference between the Frenchman (18th) and his teammate Kevin Magnussen (19th) is not in favor of the Dane and therefore not in favor of the developments made during the season.

The two Ferrari drivers finally find some rhythm and place 3rd and 4th behind the two Mercedes but relatively far, more than six-tenths for Sebastian Vettel and almost a second for Leclerc.

We are back on track, well almost…

Romain Grosjean is having a trying start to his race weekend #BritishGP 🇬🇧 #F1 pic.twitter.com/9XL85tV7Uy

— Formula 1 (@F1) 12 juillet 2019

In the last half hour, the appearance of rain surprised several drivers, including Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen. Disturbed by these conditions, the drivers return one by one to their pits with no hope of improving their times.

But these showers are temporary and typical of English weather. The sun quickly dries the track and the drivers go out again for the last ten minutes to try to gather as much information as possible after this rather disrupted session. The two Red Bulls take the opportunity to slot in between the Mercedes, with Pierre Gasly even having the luxury of setting the fastest time at the very end of the session.

FP1 CLASSIFICATION: Go, @PierreGASLY!

That’s the first time the Frenchman has topped a session 💪#BritishGP 🇬🇧 #F1 pic.twitter.com/bRDx8lWF5o

— Formula 1 (@F1) 12 juillet 2019

Free Practice 1 Rankings of the 2019 British GP: