Ahead of today’s opening free practice session, the air temperature at Silverstone is 17 degrees C, while the track temperature is also 17 degrees.

Last Friday marked mid-summer, therefore you will not be surprised to hear that, this being England, it is raining.

Tyre options this weekend are hard (prime) and medium (option) but it’s highly unlikely that we’ll be seeing these today, certainly not this morning.

Pirelli has also brought two sets (per car) of hard prototype tyres last seen on the Friday in Spain – ironically, it rained there also.

Nearly all the teams have updates here this weekend, but again it is unlikely the teams will be able to run them today.

While the conditions haven’t dampened the enthusiasm of the long suffering fans, one person who has lost out is James Rossiter. The youngster was due to drive Adrian Sutil’s car but the outing has been cancelled due to the weather.

Despite the conditions the fans don’t have to wait too long before they see some ‘action’, Bottas leading Gutierrez, Maldonado and Hulkenberg out on to the very wet track.

Rosberg and Button are the first of the ‘big guns’ to come out, Mercedes proudly showing off its new (latest?) executive technical director Paddy Lowe.

Ten minutes into the session all but Raikkonen, Vergne and Ricciardo have been out.

Such is the amount of standing water – this was an airfield, so think flat – the teams revert to “garage work”.

Told that his team doesn’t expect to do any running “any time soon”, Bottas makes it clear that all track time is valuable and he would be happy to run in these conditions.

Approaching half-time, there has been no further running. Ross Brawn says he only expects today’s session to be affected by the rain, while Jenson Button, after apologising for not running, admits that his team has a whole load of new parts on his car and doesn’t want to risk them.

Ricciardo goes out for a single, solitary lap, the rain increasing in intensity. As the Australian divers back into the pits, teammate Vergne heads out. On his return to the pits the Frenchman claims that “there is too much water”.

With forty minutes remaining, Gutierrez leaves the Sauber garage, the Swiss team the subject of much speculation following the departure of (chief designer) Matt Morris.

At the end of his lap Gutierrez heads into the pits where he continues to the end for a practice start and another lap, a process he subsequently repeats.

With 26 minutes remaining, Vettel performs a practice start before completing a sole lap.

On his return to the pits, Vettel performs practice steering wheel changes. Elsewhere, Ricciardo heads out for another lap.

With 14 minutes remaining, Ricciardo posts the first time of the day, the Toro Rosso driver stopping the clock at 2:00.029. Next time around the Australian gets down to 1:57.992, prompting Hulkenberg, Rosberg, Chilton and Bianchi to take to the track. Alonso and Massa also get to work. Everyone is on full wets.

As Bianchi posts 2:10.529, it’s worth remembering that those fans who paid on the gate, forked out £75 ($115) for this.

More and more drivers pour (sorry) on to the track however, still no sign of Raikkonen who hasn’t been seen today.

Hamilton goes quickest, the Mercedes driver posting 1:55.458 as Pic goes off into the barriers at Club ripping off the front wing.

Lots of drivers having little moments as they begin to push that little bit harder, Bottas getting worryingly out of shape on the Wellington Straight.

Ricciardo goes quickest in the first two sectors, finally crossing the line at 54.249 to take the top spot.

The session ends with just eleven names on the sheets, the twenty two drivers completing just 102 laps between them, Gutierrez (9) completing the most.

Ricciardo, ahead of Hulkenberg, Maldonado, Hamilton, Gutierrez, Bottas, Vergne, Van der Garde, Chilton, Bianchi and Massa.