Most of the attention for the first practice session at Silverstone was on Susie Wolff, making her official F1 weekend debut in Valtteri Bottas' Williams car. Unfortunately, she could only manage four laps before the power unit failed and that was the end of her morning. Even more unfortunately, Felipe Massa made the team's day even worse by crashing heavily into the barriers.

Wolff wasn't the only third driver to run today, with Robin Frijns on the Caterham, Giedo van der Garde in the Sauber, and Daniel Juncadella making his first F1 practice appearance for Force India. Pastor Maldonado didn't set a time after his Lotus stopped at the end of the pit lane and didn't return to the running.

The battle was, as always, between Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton, with the German taking top honours in the first session. With Williams not setting competitive lap times, and Daniel Ricciardo suffering gearbox issues, third place was reserved for Fernando Alonso. Ferrari looked slightly more competitive around the fast-flowing Silverstone track.