The opening Friday practice for the 2008 British Grand Prix would see the normal competition of the installation lap by the majority of the drivers, the exception been Raikkonen, Massa, and Glock who with over ten minutes of the session run had still yet to take to the track. Both AT&T Williams drivers had completed their installation lap as the track was empty with fifteen minutes of the session remaining. Given the extensive testing that the teams had carried out at the recent three day Silverstone test it would not be at all surprising to see the teams limit their track time. At this test the fastest time was a 1m:19.170, set by Hamilton.

The first driver to return to the track was Vettel. He would set a time of 1m:22.972, running on the harder Bridgestone tyre. Kazuki Nakajima was next out, joined by Sutil. Kazuki would seta time of 1m:24.503 to move into second. Fisichella and Trulli had also left the pit lane. Kazuki was on the harder tyre. He would have a big slide going into the final slow complex. He would improve with a 1m:22.736. Sutil was third but moved up to first with a 1m:22.644. Fisichella was fourth with a 1m:23.238 as Trulli went fastest with a 1m:21.651. Sutil had left the track taking to the grass but was able to continue. Kazuki was able to lower his time with a 1m:22.389 but remained second. Nico was also out on the track as was in fifth, 1m:22.726.

Nico would improve with a 1m:22.333 as the second Toyota of Glock went fastest with a 1m:21.579. He would improve with a 1m:21.125 with Trulli in second with a 1m:21.651. Kazuki had pitted. Piquet was out on the track and would move into fourth, 1m:21.956. Nico was also in the 1m:21's with a 1m:21.881. Raikkonen had taken to the track and on his first lap went fastest with a 1m:21.089. Glock had improved with a 1m:21.102 as Piquet moved into third with a 1m:21.234. Other drivers to take the track were Kovalainen and Bourdais. Piquet was now second with a 1m:20.871 as Raikkonen had also improved with a 1m:20.230. Kovalainen's first lap would see him fifth, 1m:21.580. Kazuki was now in seventh and Nico sixth. Nico had also pitted.

Raikkonen would go even faster with a 1m:19.948 as Kovalainen would move ahead of the Ferrari with a 1m:19.919. Webber was now in sixth, 1m:21.297. Hamilton had joined his McLaren team-mate and was in third, 1m:20.321. Webber would improve to now be in fifth, 1m:21.039. Hamilton would have a slide going through the complex but he would improve to now be in second, 1m:19.916. Kovalainen had also improved his quickest time with a 1m:19.682. Raikkonen had pitted while Vettel moved into fourth, 1m:20.588. Both Williams drivers had returned to the track with just over forty five minutes of the session remaining. Only three drivers had yet to set a time. Both McLarens had pitted. Coulthard competing in his last British GP was sixth, 1m:20.893. Nico and Kazuki were down in twelfth and fourteenth. Massa and Alonso had taken to the track, been the only two drivers yet to set a time. Kubica would be held up by Massa at Luffield seeing some hand waving from the BMW driver.

Massa was now fourth, 1m:19.962 and Alonso fifth, 1m:20.436. Nico was now in fifteenth and Kazuki seventeenth. Kazuki had pitted. On his next lap Massa went fastest with a 1m:19.575. Kubica was finally able to set a time that would see him fifth, 1m:20.367. Nico's time was a 1m:21.881. In the recent test Nico's best time was a 1m:20.624 so he had a considerable margin to make up.

Alonso's Renault would slow and pull off on the side of the track with an engine failure seeing his session end. Massa would have a big accident at Stowe seeing his car spin off backwards and into the barrier. The session would be halted as a result. Alonso and Massa would talk to each other as it was a case of Massa hitting the oil from Alonso's blown engine that would cause him to spin. No fault on the part of Massa but his car was a wreck with the rear end of the car taking a heavy impact. Massa's car would be craned away with the rear showing a huge amount of damage. In the pits Kubica would say on his team radio that there would be no point in running if there was cement dust on the track designed to soak up the oil from Alonso's car which had covered part of the Hanger straight and Stow corner. The organisers would have road sweepers going over the dust trying to remove it.

With all this going on the order was Massa from Kovalainen, Hamilton, Raikkonen, Kubica, Alonso, Vettel, Piquet, Coulthard and in tenth Webber. The circuit would go green and it would be Fisichella first out. He was joined by Trulli, Heidfeld, and Raikkonen. Nico would also come back out with twelve minutes remaining in the session. Hamilton would also come out as the drivers were using a line that avoided the cement dust. Further drivers would leave the pit lane while replays showed Hamilton driving over the cement dust while Kazuki took to the track. Nico was still down the order in fifteenth and Kazuki seventeenth. With just six minutes Hamilton was on a quick lap moving into second with a 1m:19.623. Kovalainen was now third. Nico was able to improve and jump up to tenth with a 1m:20.896.

Most of the field was on the track with just minutes remaining. Kazuki was now in sixteenth, 1m:21.536. Nico was on the harder tyre as Hamilton would pit. Nico had improved his time with a 1m:20.744 but remained in tenth. Kovalainen would move ahead of Hamilton with a 1m:19.587. Hamilton in in third with a 1m:19.623. The session would come to an end with Nico and Kazuki in tenth and sixteenth. Nico's time was 1.169 behind the quickest time set by Massa. Kazuki was 1.707 seconds off the pace. A fairly typical session for the AT&T Williams team. But would the team be able to produce any improvements come the next Friday practice.

Pos  Driver        Team                      Time     Laps
  1.  Massa         Ferrari              (B)  1:19.575  8
 2.  Kovalainen    McLaren-Mercedes     (B)  1:19.587  15
 3.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes     (B)  1:19.623  13
 4.  Raikkonen     Ferrari              (B)  1:19.948  16
 5.  Kubica        BMW Sauber           (B)  1:20.367  11
 6.  Alonso        Renault              (B)  1:20.436  7
 7.  Vettel        Toro Rosso-Ferrari   (B)  1:20.588  18
 8.  Piquet        Renault              (B)  1:20.653  16
 9.  Coulthard     Red Bull-Renault     (B)  1:20.698  16
10.  Rosberg       AT&T Williams-Toyota (B)  1:20.744  27
11.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault     (B)  1:20.892  10
12.  Glock         Toyota               (B)  1:21.102  22
13.  Heidfeld      BMW Sauber           (B)  1:21.107  18
14.  Bourdais      Toro Rosso-Ferrari   (B)  1:21.166  17
15.  Trulli        Toyota               (B)  1:21.265  22
16.  Nakajima      AT&T Williams-Toyota (B)  1:21.282  21
17.  Button        Honda                (B)  1:21.901  7
18.  Sutil         Force India-Ferrari  (B)  1:22.169  16
19.  Fisichella    Force India-Ferrari  (B)  1:22.219  19
20.  Barrichello   Honda                (B)  1:24.123  4