Vettel outguns Hamilton

FERRARI’S Sebastian Vettel pushed Formula One title rival and home race favourite Lewis Hamilton off the top of the British Grand Prix practice time-sheets yesterday while Max Verstappen crashed.

Hamilton, winner for the past four years at Silverstone, had started the day by leading a Mercedes one-two in the sunny opening session.

Vettel, who leads the Briton by a point in the championship after nine races, put in a lap of one minute 27.552 seconds in the afternoon to end the session 0.187 faster than his fellow-four-times world champion.

That was still slower than Hamilton’s morning time of 1:27.487, however, with Vettel third then and half a second slower.

Hamilton’s Finnish team-mate Valtteri Bottas, with a new engine in his car after last weekend’s mechanical retirement in Austria, was second and third fastest respectively in the two sessions.

Australian Daniel Ricciardo and Kimi Raikkonen traded fourth and fifth places while Verstappen, winner in Austria for Red Bull, was sixth in the morning but crashed after lunch without setting a time.

Haas’s Romain Grosjean also had a crash at the first corner.