page_title: 2015 British Grand Prix
section_title: Free practice
hierarchical_section_title: 2015 British Grand Prix / Report / Free practice
caption_attribution_description: English: Will Stevens in the Marussia MR03B at Silverstone 2015
context_page_description: The 2015 British Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race that took place on 5 July 2015 at the Silverstone Circuit in Silverstone, United Kingdom. The race was the ninth round of the 2015 season, and marked the 70th running of the British Grand Prix, and the 51st time that the race was held at the Silverstone Circuit.
  Lewis Hamilton was the defending race winner, and came into the event with a ten-point lead over teammate Nico Rosberg in the World Drivers' Championship. In the Constructors' Championship, Mercedes were leading Ferrari by 136 points, with Williams a further 63 points adrift.
  Hamilton took pole position during Saturday's qualifying, his eighth of the season, ahead of Rosberg and the two Williams of Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas. The first lap of the race saw the Massa and Bottas take first and second place respectively through fast starts. They were able to hold their positions until the pit stops. Rain in the latter part of the race gave Sebastian Vettel the chance to overtake the two Williams for the last podium position. Hamilton won the race for the second consecutive year, 11 seconds ahead of his teammate, extending his championship lead to 17 points.
context_section_description: Per the regulations for the 2015 season, three practice sessions were held, two one and a half-hour sessions on Friday and another one-hour session before qualifying on Saturday. In the first practice session on Friday morning, Nico Rosberg posted the fastest time, after recovering from early hydraulic problems that forced his team to exchange his gearbox. Rosberg was eventually 0.07 seconds quicker than teammate Lewis Hamilton. Max Verstappen was 1.2 seconds down on Rosberg in third, proving the Toro Rosso chassis was competitive for the weekend. Taking part in first practice were test drivers Jolyon Palmer, replacing Romain Grosjean at Lotus, Susie Wolff in Valtteri Bottas' Williams FW37, and Raffaele Marciello for Sauber instead of Marcus Ericsson.
  The second session on Friday afternoon was red-flagged early on when Romain Grosjean got stuck in a gravel trap at Luffield corner. Nico Rosberg was once again fastest ahead of the two Ferrari drivers and teammate Hamilton, who complained about the setup of his car. McLaren and Sauber endured difficult sessions, finishing only ahead of the two Manor Marussia cars. It was Manor Marussia driver Roberto Merhi who brought out a second red flag, when his car beached at the same spot that had caught out Grosjean earlier. After the Williams drivers only finished tenth and twelfth, Felipe Massa stated that his team was behind Red Bull.
  In the third and final practice session, held on Saturday morning, World Champion Lewis Hamilton set the fastest time, half a second ahead of his teammate, who spent the better part of the session in the garage while his team investigated a possible gearbox oil leak. Behind the Mercedes cars were the two Ferraris and the two Toro Rossos, with only Kimi Räikkönen coming within a second of Hamilton's time. Meanwhile, Fernando Alonso was confined to only six laps, ending his session early.
caption: Will Stevens driving the reliveried Marussia MR03B
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