Rain makes first practice a washout

2013 British Grand Prix first practice

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Persistent rain at Silverstone meant very little track action was seen during the first 90 minutes of practice. Fewer than a dozen drivers set a time.

Steady rain fell throughout the session leaving the track very wet and causing most teams to keep their cars in the pits.

Only in the final quarter of an hour did drivers take to the track in significant numbers and the first lap times started to appear.

Daniel Ricciardo was the first driver to do so and he ended up fastest on a 1’54.249.

Second fastest was Nico Hulkenberg despite going off at the exit of Copse.

Team mate Esteban Gutierrez had a high-speed spin in his Sauber but didn’t hit anything. He was fifth behind Pastor Maldonado and Lewis Hamilton.

Charles Pic was the only casualty of the conditions, going off at Club and breaking the front wing on his Caterham. All the drivers bar Kimi Raikkonen completed at least one lap, the Lotus driver staying in the pits.

Pos.No.DriverCarBest lapGapLaps
119Daniel RicciardoToro Rosso-Ferrari1’54.24910
211Nico HulkenbergSauber-Ferrari1’55.0330.7847
316Pastor MaldonadoWilliams-Renault1’55.3541.1057
410Lewis HamiltonMercedes1’55.4581.2095
512Esteban GutierrezSauber-Ferrari1’55.8251.5769
617Valtteri BottasWilliams-Renault1’56.3612.1127
718Jean-Eric VergneToro Rosso-Ferrari1’57.8913.6424
821Giedo van der GardeCaterham-Renault1’58.8594.6106
923Max ChiltonMarussia-Cosworth1’59.7195.4707
1022Jules BianchiMarussia-Cosworth1’59.8765.6278
114Felipe MassaFerrari2’06.53412.2856
129Nico RosbergMercedesNo time3
1314Paul di RestaForce India-MercedesNo time4
148Romain GrosjeanLotus-RenaultNo time1
155Jenson ButtonMcLarenNo time1
1615Adrian SutilForce India-MercedesNo time4
173Fernando AlonsoFerrariNo time4
182Mark WebberRed Bull-RenaultNo time1
196Sergio PerezMcLarenNo time1
2020Charles PicCaterham-RenaultNo time3
211Sebastian VettelRed Bull-RenaultNo time4
227Kimi RaikkonenLotus-RenaultNo time0

2013 British Grand Prix

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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17 comments on “Rain makes first practice a washout”

  1. For the first time in years I didn’t go to Friday Practice. I’m glad I haven’t done looking at things on Sky.
    I’ll stick with the sun-cream on Sunday.

  2. The first pendulum swings towards Ricciardo. :D

    1. I was curious where this would put him in the ‘Youngest drivers to set the fastest lap time in an official Grand Prix session’ record. Over a year outside the top 10 still. Almost 5 years older than Vettel in the 2006 Turkish Grand Prix. It’s crazy how much younger things have gotten.

      1. jimscreechy (@)
        28th June 2013, 12:37

        yes… a calculated tactic to put him into focus given Webbers exit I think. His management are clearly thinking ahead, and at least doing some work for the money they are being paid.

        1. @jimscreechy – Sorry, but this isn’t a PR move. Setting a fastest lap time in a washed-out practice session twenty-four hours after Webber announces his retirement will not get Ricciardo a place at Red Bull.

          1. jimscreechy (@)
            28th June 2013, 13:36

            Oh, so the headlines on most websites about him setting the pace in first practice have nothing to do with PR, which you can of course confirm not only because your a PR exec, but also because you happen to be his PR advisor and have marketing insights to how his presence is percieved in the pitlane and specifically at RedBull Racing?

        2. @jimscreechy STR is Red Bull’s junior team. Ricciardo is part of Red Bull’s Young Drive Program. RB management will have mountains of data about his form, driving style, interaction with engineers; everything we know little to nothing about, which is actually relevant to their decision. It is absurd to me that you think Red Bull management are imbecilic and/or petulant to care about this supposed (and completely irrelevant) PR masterstroke.

          1. … I think if you get a series of headlines, Ricciardo fastest etc etc. It will for sure help. Just look at Perez, a good year with great results. BAM. top team.

            So for Ricciardo, this is the best time to start getting great results. He wants that seat. He needs to be able to say, hey, don’t worry about Kimi, I can do the job, not only that, I’m great with the PR.

  3. Regarding Keith’s tweet: “Not much incentive for drivers to go out on conditions like this. If this wet the race they’d probably red flag it.” Perhaps they would, because of visibility, but as far as lap times were concerned, the circuit was still driveable. Last year’s qualifying was red-flagged when drivers on qualifying laps could not do 2-minute laps anymore, whereas now we were comfortably below 2 minutes, and even then only a few drivers were trying.

    Washed-out practice sessions remain an annoying dilemma for the sport. You would want to go out for the fans, but you don’t want to risk the material, and there is little you can learn for the rest of the weekend. One could try to come up with rules or incentives to get the cars out there, but it would probably be very contrived, and F1 has enough rules like that already. The problem wouldn’t be so bad if it didn’t cost the fans a fortune to attend, but I don’t see ticket prices and hotel prices going significantly down any time soon either.

    1. @adrianmorse

      You would want to go out for the fans

      That’s the last reason why the teams go out. If they send their drivers out, it’s to gather data that can be used for the race. Not to parade around for the benefit of the fans.

      1. @prisoner-monkeys, I think you’re being a bit cynical here. Without fans coming to the races, there would not be much left of F1. Teams are aware of that, and indeed they often speak about putting on a good show for the fans (some more than others). I think drivers and teams do want to go out, if nothing else than for the love of motorsport, but their hands are tied by the fact that the rational thing to do is not to go out.

        1. @adrianmorse – Sorry, but the teams don’t owe anything to the fans. If fans buy tickets for Friday and the practice sessions are a wash-out, the teams are under no obligation to send their drivers out to appease the crowds. Especially if they feel that it’s not worth going out. The fans have no right to demand that the teams make decisions that are bad for them.

  4. Chris (@tophercheese21)
    28th June 2013, 12:33

    Ahhh a lovely warm English summer.

  5. This season is over. Just look at it… Red Bull have the best package and a huge lead. The other teams (lotus and Ferrari) have been trying to test new parts but virtually every recent Friday practice has been wet or mixed so they can’t. Mercedes got their own special test so good for them. .. if they hadn’t Vettel would be even further in the lead. So at the end of the day… what is the point?

  6. i feel sorry for people who bought just friday tickets.

  7. The only good thing about Friday was being able to sit where you wanted, I was given a 3 day ticket as a present from my other half, I will not be spending my own money on Silverstone tickets in the future and will advise her not to get me tickets again either. I am deeply unhappy at the outlay for no real entertainment. This was the first time I had been to Silverstone for a GP in nearly 30 years. I have been to plenty of GP’s in Europe since then which all offered more in terms of atmosphere and action. I appreciate my comments will go unheeded but as a F1 fan of 40+ years standing I am less and less enamoured of the sport with every passing year, there are too many other things to do that represent a better “customer experience”.

    1. Well this is a sing of why tickets aren´t selling…

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