Valtteri Bottas, Lewis Hamilton Set FP1 Pace at British Grand Prix 2017

Mercedes dominated the opening day of the British Formula One Grand Prix on Friday, with Valtteri Bottas topping second practice at Silverstone.

Bottas was narrowly in front of team-mate Lewis Hamilton in the afternoon, posting a time of one minute, 28.496 seconds; encouragingly for Hamilton, his time of 1:28.543 was achieved on the slower soft tyre. Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen was third.

Earlier in the day, Bottas was quickest again in another excellent session for the Silver Arrows. The drivers will be back on Saturday morning for final practice before what promises to be a key qualifying session.

Read on for the latest details from Silverstone, as Mercedes enjoyed a tremendous start to the race weekend.

FP2 Recap

Here is how the timing boards looked at the end of the second practice stint:

Having opted against putting the supersoft tyres on in the morning, we got a glimpse of what Mercedes can do on a quicker compound in the afternoon.

While the two Silver Arrows were top of the standings anyway, Bottas had a dash on the red-trimmed tyre and was able to usurp his team-mate at the summit of the standings.

Hamilton, having looked sharp earlier in the session, wasn't able to get a lap in on the supersoft compound. As noted by the Sky Sports F1 Twitter feed, he was struggling with an issue on his car and ran wide:

After struggling for any rhythm in the morning at all, Ferrari did improve a little in the afternoon and were closer to the early pace of the Mercedes men.

Vettel took an early lead in the session, although he was usurped by Raikkonen before the Mercedes took over. Still, neither were able to get the better of Hamilton in second place, who had set his time on the slower soft compound.

The drivers settled into some race simulation runs later in the session, and while that meant there wasn’t much action on the time sheets, some drivers still got into difficulty.

Raikkonen was one, as he spun off at Chapel after the rear end stepped out. Earlier, Felipe Massa was involved in a similar incident in his Williams:

A couple of the elite men put on the supersoft tyre late on in an attempt to make some late gains. However, the teams were unwilling to give much away at all ahead of Saturday's qualifying battle.

FP1 Recap

Here are the first set of timings from Silverstone, courtesy of the Formula One Twitter account:

As is often the case in the early stages of FP1, the teams sought to try out new setups and add-ons. As we can see here courtesy of Sky Sports F1, the Ferrari of Vettel was using a shield over his cockpit:

While that equipment was taken off, once Vettel had a clear view he didn't fare much better, as the two Ferraris struggled for pace around the iconic circuit.

Indeed, both Vettel and Raikkonen had hairy moments. The former spun at Maggotts and rattled over the kerbs at Turn 4, while the latter very nearly lost total control of his Ferrari at Brooklands, eventually doing well to correct his steering after losing the back end.

Their struggles meant Red Bull capitalised, with Verstappen and the in-form Daniel Ricciardo clearly the best of the rest early in the session.

Mark Thompson/Getty Images

Yet they are a long way back on Mercedes, who are showing signs they will repeat their 1-2 from 12 months ago. While the rest of the field used the quicker tyre compounds in FP1, the Silver Arrows stayed on the slower softs; they were still the quickest drivers.

As noted by the Pirelli Motorsport Twitter account, Mercedes have also made significant improvements on last year:

Bottas continues to apply the pressure to Hamilton, though. While there was just 0.078 seconds separating the two, the Finn seems intent on preserving his momentum after an impressive victory in Austria last time out.

It's going to be intriguing to see how Hamilton responds in the afternoon and if anyone else can get near the imperious Mercedes pair.