Marciello leads the way in Silverstone

Raffaele Marciello has got his Silverstone weekend under way in fine style by claiming the top spot in this morning’s free practice session and heading a 1-2 for Racing Engineering, with teammate Stefano Coletti and Alexander Rossi rounding out the top three positions.
The Ferrari Academy driver set a best time of 1:41.127 two-thirds of the way into the session, edging past his previous best time to hold onto the top of the timesheets by just over a tenth from the Monegasque driver in a tight session that saw 14 drivers within a second of the top spot.
The session got underway in sunny, and very windy, conditions, with Johnny Cecotto setting the first competitive time as the tyres got up to temperature, but it wasn’t to last: championship leader Jolyon Palmer soon stole the position before the Racing Engineering pair opened a private battle between them.
Marciello held the honours before the field returned to the pits, but it was a close run thing: the top three were split by under a tenth, and it was clear that more was required. When the field returned to the track they were pushing harder, as evidenced by off-track excursions by Palmer and Coletti among others, but it was the Italian who improved his time and claimed the honours.
Behind the top three Palmer, Cecotto, Felipe Nasr (who slowed with a mechanical gremlin as the chequered flag emerged), Stephane Richelmi, McLaren protégé Stoffel Vandoorne, Daniiel de Jong and Mitch Evans rounded out the top ten, but with a session so close this afternoon’s qualifying session promises sparks.
Silverstone – Free Practice
Driver
Team
Laptime
Laps
1.
Raffaele Marciello
Racing Engineering
1:41.127
16
2.
Stefano Coletti
Racing Engineering
1:41.261
14
3.
Alexander Rossi
EQ8 Caterham Racing
1:41.274
8
4.
Jolyon Palmer
DAMS
1:41.404
17
5.
Johnny Cecotto
Trident
1:41.448
19
6.
Felipe Nasr
Carlin
1:41.453
16
7.
Stéphane Richelmi
DAMS
1:41.480
17
8.
Stoffel Vandoorne
ART Grand Prix
1:41.668
18
9.
Daniiel De Jong
MP Motorsport
1:41.729
18
10.
Mitch Evans
RT RUSSIAN TIME
1:41.737
19
11.
Julian Leal
Carlin
1:41.747
18
12.
Sergio Canamasas
Trident
1:41.892
18
13.
Rio Haryanto
EQ8 Caterham Racing
1:41.896
16
14.
Simon Trummer
Rapax
1:42.041
18
15.
Conor Daly
Venezuela GP Lazarus
1:42.145
16
16.
Daniel Abt
Hilmer Motorsport
1:42.151
20
17.
André Negrao
Arden International
1:42.153
15
18.
Nathanaël Berthon
Venezuela GP Lazarus
1:42.161
17
19
Marco Sorensen
MP Motorsport
1:42.209
17
20.
Adrian Quaife-Hobbs
Rapax
1:42.299
18
21.
Arthur Pic
Campos Racing
1:42.474
17
22.
Artem Markelov
RT RUSSIAN TIME
1:42.675
18
23.
Kimiya Sato
Campos Racing
1:42.826
18
24.
Takuya Izawa
ART Grand Prix
1:42.941
19
25.
Jon Lancaster
Hilmer Motorsport
1:43.180
19
26.
Rene Binder
Arden International
1:43.316
16