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British GP: Daniel Ricciardo leads rain-hit first practice

Daniel Ricciardo set the fastest time in a wet British Grand Prix practice session that looked for a long spell like it might feature no flying laps whatsoever

Teams do not expect the heavy rain that began Friday morning to continue into the weekend, giving even less reason than usual to take to a wet track in practice one.

After initial installation laps, most drivers chose to wait in the pits, leaving the large crowd to entertain themselves before an empty track.

Finally with less than a quarter of an hour left Toro Rosso's Ricciardo became the first man to actually set a lap time, crossing the line in 2m00.029s.

That prompted others to come out, and ultimately 11 drivers completed flying laps through the puddles.

Lewis Hamilton was fastest on a 1m55.033s in his Mercedes going into the final moments, but Ricciardo regained his top spot with a 1m54.249s.

Sauber's Nico Hulkenberg and Williams driver Pastor Maldonado then slipped into second and third, demoting Hamilton to fourth.

Esteban Gutierrez and Valtteri Bottas completed the top six, despite a late spin for the former.

Kimi Raikkonen was the only driver not to take to the track at all. His Lotus team-mate Romain Grosjean, Jenson Button, Mark Webber and Sergio Perez all confined themselves to a single tour then stayed in the pits.

Proving that track conditions definitely were treacherous, Charles Pic crashed his Caterham at Club late on. The Frenchman was unhurt.

Pos Driver                Team                  Time      Gap       Laps
 1. Daniel Ricciardo      Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1m54.249s            10
 2. Nico Hulkenberg       Sauber-Ferrari        1m55.033s  + 0.784s   7
 3. Pastor Maldonado      Williams-Renault      1m55.354s  + 1.105s   7
 4. Lewis Hamilton        Mercedes              1m55.458s  + 1.209s   5
 5. Esteban Gutierrez     Sauber-Ferrari        1m55.825s  + 1.576s   9
 6. Valtteri Bottas       Williams-Renault      1m56.361s  + 2.112s   7
 7. Jean-Eric Vergne      Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1m57.891s  + 3.642s   4
 8. Giedo van der Garde   Caterham-Renault      1m58.859s  + 4.610s   6
 9. Max Chilton           Marussia-Cosworth     1m59.719s  + 5.470s   7
10. Jules Bianchi         Marussia-Cosworth     1m59.876s  + 5.627s   8
11. Felipe Massa          Ferrari               2m06.534s  + 12.285   6
12. Nico Rosberg          Mercedes              no time               3
13. Paul di Resta         Force India-Mercedes  no time               4
14. Romain Grosjean       Lotus-Renault         no time               1
15. Jenson Button         McLaren-Mercedes      no time               1
16. Adrian Sutil          Force India-Mercedes  no time               4
17. Fernando Alonso       Ferrari               no time               4
18. Mark Webber           Red Bull-Renault      no time               1
19. Sergio Perez          McLaren-Mercedes      no time               1
20. Charles Pic           Caterham-Renault      no time               3
21. Sebastian Vettel      Red Bull-Renault      no time               4
22. Kimi Raikkonen        Lotus-Renault         no time               0


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