Rate it!

1 votes

Sebastian Vettel led a Red Bull one-two in first practice for the British Grand Prix at Silverstone with Brawn championship leader Jenson Button third behind Mark Webber.

The Milton Keynes-based squad - sporting a new, wider nosecone on the RB5 - won the first battle of the weekend with runaway leaders Brawn, with Vettel taking top spot in the final minute with a time of 1:19.400.

Australian Webber had usurped Briton Button in P1 with little over 20 minutes remaining and his 1:20.234 seemed good enough to top the final timesheets until his German colleague's final run.

Brazilian Rubens Barrichello completed the form teams' lockout of the top four places.

Button, who spent most of the first hour in the garage as the mechanics worked on his BGP001 following his installation laps, needed only 12 further circuits to reach the summit, the British crowd getting behind their likely next world champion.

His fellow Briton and reigning champion Lewis Hamilton ended the 90-minute session in eighth, with Renault's Fernando Alonso, Felipe Massa of Ferrari and Jarno Trulli of Toyota ahead of him and behind Barrichello.

Trulli spent a brief period in P1 after taking over from Barrichello, Button's quick run subsequently topping his lap-time.

With the political rumblings of the proposed FOTA breakaway diverting attention from the track - FIA president Max Mosley had a meeting with Formula One supremo Bernie Ecclestone in the latter's motorhome in the paddock - the drivers got on with the job.

Williams' Nico Rosberg was ninth ahead of impressive Force India duo Giancarlo Fisichella and Adrian Sutil, with Heikki Kovalainen - using KERS, unlike Hamilton, as McLaren compared the two sets of data from their MP4-24s - next in the list.

BMW had another poor start with Nick Heidfeld 13th and Robert Kubica last in 20th, while Kimi Raikkonen in the Ferrari was 14th ahead of Sebastien Bourdais (Toro Rosso), Timo Glock (Toyota), Kazuki Nakajima (Williams), Nelson Piquet Jr (Renault) and Sebastien Buemi (Toro Rosso).

Join Eurosport-Yahoo for LIVE coverage of Saturday morning practice from 10:00 UK time then qualifying at 13:00 - and the race on Sunday!!

Jonathan Symcox / Eurosport