Maldonado leads the way in free practice

Venezuelan fastest in first session

Pastor Maldonado has continued where he left off in Valencia by putting himself on top of the timesheets in this morning’s free practice session in Silverstone, edging ahead of rivals Giedo van der Garde and Jerome d’Ambrosio.

The Venezuelan set a best time of 1:40.393 at the 12 minute mark, pushing ahead of the Dutchman’s then best lap by two tenths with a time that would not be matched for the remainder of the session, with third placed d’Ambrosio the closest challenger with just a few minutes remaining before the chequered flag.

The session opened in warm but breezy conditions, with Giacomo Ricci, Luiz Razia and Jules Bianchi setting the early pace: unfortunately for the Brazilian he appeared to snap left at the chicane and rolled to a halt, with his then quickest lap soon falling back to 12th as the rest of the grid got up to speed.

Van der Garde was the first man to challenge Razia’s time, but only managed to hold on to the top spot for about a minute before Maldonado made the position his own: with temperatures increasing for the second half of the session only d’Ambrosio managed to improve his time among the top runners to put himself third, ahead of Sergio Perez, Christian Vietoris, Dani Clos, Davide Valsecchi and Jules Bianchi.

With the top twelve drivers covered by just one second, this afternoon’s qualifying session looks set to be another classic at the fabled British circuit.