Brazilian Felipe Massa set the pace on the first days testing for next weekends British Grand Prix at the Silverstone circuit in Northamtonshire- currently sold out. The world championship leaders best time of 1:20.188 was good enough to put him in first place, just three tenths of a second faster than McLaren’s Heikki Kovalainen, who could only manage a best time of 1:20.477.

Heikki debuted several new aerodynamic improvements to the McLaren, including a curved fin that heads from the middle of the bridge wing to the middle of the front end. The device is only relatively small but will probably reduce the amount the wing moves, therefore improving the overall aerodynamic flow over the car.

BMW’s Robert Kubica managed to set the third fastest time around the 5.1km circuit, a huge eight tenths of a second a lap adrift of Ferrari’s Felipe Massa. Toyota’s new test driver Kamui Kobayashi took on the teams testing duties today, setting a best lap time good enough to net him 4th place.

Nico Rosberg’s best time wasn’t good enough to get him higher than 5th. The Williams teams fortunes seem to have slumped in the past few races, one of the few privateer teams left in the sport, will surely be wanting to improve on home soil.

Mark Webber, fresh from his point-scoring round last time out, set 6th fastest time, completing 94 laps, still 1.4 seconds slower than Felipe in the Ferrari. He was followed home by Nelson Piquet in 7th, who is under some pressure to up his performance in races, or face the sack. Honda’s Jenson Button managed to beat Vitantonio Liuzzi in a heavily revamped Force India. In last place was Sebastian Vettle in the STR03.

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