Pierre Gasly has topped the opening practice session from the British Grand Prix weekend, as drivers struggled for grip during the 90 minutes. 

The low grip Silverstone Circuit provided a challenge for many of the drivers, with plenty going for spins in the early stages of the session.

One red flag was called when Kimi Raikkonen stopped on the circuit with a power unit problem. Alfa Romeo confirmed during the session that it would need to be replaced prior to the start of FP2 later today.

Romain Grosjean was left with a red face after he spun at the exit of the pit lane shortly after the green flag was waved for the start of practice, which ripped his front wing from the car.

The Haas driver is running an Australia spec car on Friday as Haas attempts to uncover why it is having issues during with its race pace.

Gasly's session-topping time was a 1:27.173, which was just under half a second quicker than Valtteri Bottas, who ended up in second place.

Gasly went out on the soft tyres at the end of the session to set his time. There was also some raindrops that fell around the midway points, which made conditions tricky for the drivers.

The second Red Bull car of Max Verstappen was third, fresh from his race win in Austria two weeks ago. Lewis Hamilton was fourth, one second down on Gasly, but set his fastest lap on the medium compound.

The Ferrari duo of Charles Leclerc and Sebastian Vettel followed in fifth and sixth respectively, while both Renaults followed, with Nico Hulkenberg leading teammate Daniel Ricciardo.

Alexander Albon was one of many drivers who had an off-track excursion during the session, but the Thai-Britsh driver ended up in ninth place, ahead of Carlos Sainz who rounded out the top ten.