Mercedes 'experimented' in opening day of running - Shovlin

Mercedes led the charge in the opening day of running for F1's 70th Anniversary GP at Silverstone, the team including development work and a few experiments in its day's programs.

Valtteri Bottas set the pace in FP1 before handing the baton to Lewis Hamilton in the afternoon, but in both cases the Black Arrows squad enjoyed a comfortable performance margin over its rivals.

©Mercedes

"It looks like everyone ran an unusual programme today in terms of tyres but we're all trying to get enough of the medium and hard into our qualifying and race allocation," explained trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin.

"The soft is a tricky tyre, it's working quite nicely on a single lap but on a long run it's not lasting long. We expect most teams will try to avoid that tyre in the race.

"The medium seems more durable and it's not much slower compared to the soft on a single lap.

"We've got a fair understanding of the track from last week, so we were able to use some of the running in free practice to sign off a few development parts and do some experiments.

"It's been pretty hot today but our pace looks reasonable for a Friday on both short and long runs which is useful as the hot weather looks like it will carry into Saturday and Sunday."

70th Anniversary Grand Prix Free Practice 2 - Results

Hamilton said the team capitalized on last weekend's solid base set-up, optimizing its settings during Friday's sessions.

"We brought a lot of learnings over from last week and with just a few small adjustments to the set-up we've been able to fine-tune the car and make some progress, which is positive," said the six-time world champion.

"Both the Soft and Medium tyres feel very similar out there and there's not a huge amount of time between them.

"We saw some overheating with the tyres, so they are going to take some nursing to get the best out of them.

"It was great to take the win here last weekend, but I know just how strong Valtteri is and as we saw last weekend, absolutely anything can happen in F1."

Gallery: The beautiful wives and girlfriends of F1 drivers

Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter

Phillip van Osten

Motor racing was a backdrop from the outset in Phillip van Osten's life. Born in Southern California, Phillip grew up with the sights and sounds of fast cars thanks to his father, Dick van Osten, an editor and writer for Auto Speed and Sport and Motor Trend. Phillip's passion for racing grew even more when his family moved to Europe and he became acquainted with the extraordinary world of Grand Prix racing. He was an early contributor to the monthly French F1i Magazine, often providing a historic or business perspective on Formula 1's affairs. In 2012, he co-authored along with fellow journalist Pierre Van Vliet the English-language adaptation of a limited edition book devoted to the great Belgian driver Jacky Ickx. He also authored "The American Legacy in Formula 1", a book which recounts the trials and tribulations of American drivers in Grand Prix racing. Phillip is also a commentator for Belgian broadcaster Be.TV for the US Indycar series.