Good morning and welcome to ESPNF1's live coverage of the British Grand Prix. The weather may dominate this weekend but fear not, our determined man in the paddock - deputy editor Laurence Edmondson - has beaten the traffic and the rain to report from Silverstone. His first update: "miserable". Nice.

So we're braced for a wet weekend - every session looks likely to be run on the intermediate and wet compound tyres - but you know that means mistakes and unpredictability. Bring it on.

Free practice one starts in just under 20 minutes, and the weather is not good news for the teams, with a number of updates being brought to this race. That should mean we see cars on track trying to get as much data as possible though in order to analyse their new parts

Do you want a reminder of what Silverstone was like in similar weather conditions 12 years ago? Well, check out this shot of one of the car parks:

© Sutton Images

As always, we want to hear from you here at ESPNF1. You can get in touch in one of two ways -either email us using the link above or get in touch via Twitter @ESPNF1

Our first email of the day comes in from Rahulan in India:

"As always looking forward to your commentary and the various insights you offer us throughout the weekend. McLaren's proposed update package has been the hot topic across all websites. I wanted to know if other top teams like Ferrari and Lotus too are bringing in new parts for this race?"

All of the teams are bringing new parts, but to different extents. McLaren has a major upgrade, as does Caterham. Red Bull, Ferrari, Mercedes and Lotus have new parts but have not really revealed how major they are - Red Bull of course rolled out its big update in Valencia - while there are various other updates up and down the grid, which I'll endeavour to explain as and when we see them.

Just an update on driver changes too. Jules Bianchi replaces Nico Hulkenberg for FP1 at Force India, while Valtteri Bottas takes over Bruno Senna's car as usual and Dani Clos is in at HRT for Narain Karthikeyan.

Before we get underway it would be remiss of us not to mention Maria de Villota. The latest update on her condition from her family says that she is still critical but stable, while thanking everyone for their "overwhelming" support. It goes without saying that everyone here at ESPNF1's thoughts are with Maria and her family and we wish her a speedy recovery.

Turning our attentions back to today, and it's a positively tropical 16C air temperature, while the track temperature is one degree higher

The lights go green and the session has started. Cars are straight out on track too for installation laps - both Toro Rosso's closely followed by Kobayashi, Petrov, Kovalainen, Glock and Pic

The spray is pretty horrendous, in all honesty. Watching two cars come down the Wellington straight and it is getting thrown up at relatively slow speed

Webber is out on track in the Red Bull which is sporting a special livery this weekend - the car is covered in thousands of faces as part of a fundraising initiative for the Wings for Life charity. It looks great, too:

© Sutton Images

Perez has continued for a second installation lap and will set a time. Full wets for everybody out there

The first lap time set is a 2:11.663 from Perez

A great onboard view from Button's McLaren - he has a camera on the top right side of his helmet - and it shows just how bad the visibility is

In a weather affected FP1 last year, the quickest time set was a 1:46.603 by Mark Webber

Updates - Caterham have got some new rear bodywork, front and rear wings and a new exhaust - Kovalainen has the new exhaust on for the start of this session while Petrov runs the old one for back-to-back comparisons

An email from Mark and Sue (not sure which is emailing!) which asks:

"Hey guys, big fan of Webber & Ricciardo, as I do live in Melbourne. What do you think of their chances this weekend?"

Well Webber looked strong here last year as he caught Vettel late on but was told not to pass, and with the Red Bull so strong in Valencia I'd say Webber is in the mix to challenge for victory. Ricciardo, however, may struggle a little bit more. The Toro Rosso seems a bit off the pace and has Caterham closing in, but the weather may give him more of a chance to display his pace and fight for points

Kobayashi begins a lap - Sauber is keen to get on with some work today. He has the track to himself

Chris in Perth asks: "Who handles the rain best? Which drivers and cars?

High downforce, smooth driving and the touch of magic are looking like the combination all weekend.

Button does well in the rain, so has Schumacher in the past, who can discount Perez and Alonso? Anyone else outstanding?"

As you say, Button reads these conditions well, but all of the drivers agree that a strong car helps. Alonso won in the changeable conditions here last year, while Hamilton was immense in 2008 when we had heavy rain. Add in Perez's strong performance in the wet of Malaysia and it really is anyone's guess!

Kobayashi runs wide at the entrance to Vale and splashes through a puddle but continues and sets the fastest time so far - a 2:02.254

Pic completes a lap with a 2:11.760

Daniele emails in to ask: "Do you think that the weather condition will be similar on Sunday? I really looking forward to watch a full wet race .. especially because I'm in a very hot sunny Italy. Forza Ferrari!"

The short answer is yes we do. The forecast for the whole weekend is for a lot of rain. We may get some breaks and the odd drier spell, but the chances of a completely dry session is virtually nil

Vettel begins a lap, very tentatively picking his way through Maggots and Becketts

Vettel does a 2:10.702 but then Webber goes fastest with a 2:01.153. They're both in the Wings for Life liveried car and Marius emails in to ask: "Where and how can we contribute to the Wings for Life charity?"

Well you can learn more about the initiative at this race here, and from there you can read about the charity

Webber improves again to break the two-minute barrier with a 1:59.719

Ricciardo's gone second with a 2:01.729. The Aussies are liking the wet conditions right now - who'd have thought it?!

A couple of big moments of oversteer for Ricciardo out of the last corner but he catches the car and goes quickest with a 1:58.581

Nick from New Zealand asks: "How do you see Kimi and Romain going this weekend should the rain continue to the race?"

Well, Lotus likes the warmer conditions, but the rain could actually help. Even if it's dry, however, Grosjean believes that Lotus will still be strong as the high-speed nature of the circuit puts a lot of energy in to the tyres

Webber goes quickest with a 1:58.463. A surprisingly busy track despite the conditions - there's 10 cars on track right now

Ricciardo pops in a quick time as he builds up confidence - a 1:56.827

Force India has sensors on its cars as it runs a new floor, front wing and rear wing this weekend

Clos does a 2:05.881 on his first flying lap in the wet for HRT

And on his second flying lap Clos spins at the start of the Wellington straight. A number of cars have looked very twitchy getting the power down at that point

Grosjean's gone second quickest with a 1:57.058

Massa has just passed Perez on the Hangar straight, and I had no idea the Sauber was there due to the spray until he cleared him.

Grosjean goes quickest with a 1:56.552

The rain continues to come down heavily, and looks like it will do so for the rest of the session according to the radar

Perez goes third fastest with a 1:57.664

Grosjean has pushed too hard through Maggotts and Becketts and run across the grass, soaking has car

Kobayashi has a spin in the Arena section avoiding Grosjean on the outside of him

Dani Clos can feel a lot better about himself - his much more experienced team-mate de la Rosa has just had exactly the same spin at the start of the Wellington straight

Hamilton goes fourth with a 1:57.715

Button heads out as the rain starts falling even more heavily. The forecast appeared to suggest that the rain would get heavier as FP1 goes on, so the likes of Kobayashi - with 11 laps - appear to have done their work at the right time

Hamilton using the karting line through Stowe - wide off the racing line - and he goes third, just 0.622s slower than Grosjean

Glock has a spin at Brooklands

Button comes through Club to start his first timed lap and there's a lot of standing water there

In all honesty it wouldn't surprise me if we start to see drivers returning to the pits now as the rain gets heavier

We have had a request for pictures of the rain, but unfortunately there's been none through yet from the picture agencies braving the weather. We will do so as soon as we get them

Rosberg runs wide at Vale. Only seven cars on track at present

One of those cars is Kimi Raikkonen. He's never a fan of these conditions and often decides not to run, but with the forecast predicting more of the same for the rest of the weekend he's getting some laps in

Having said that, Raikkonen pits. He's almost four seconds off the pace, while Button is 5.2s slower than Grosjean - so that tells you that conditions have deteriorated

Hamilton is sporting a new helmet design this weekend with the Union Flag more prominent and Silverstone written across the back

Button pits, leaving just Kovalainen and Clos out there

And now Clos is in. Kovalainen goes off at Becketts - just as Grosjean did earlier - and I wouldn't be surprised if he pits now too

Force India has done the least running, just one lap each from di Resta and Bianchi

Kovalainen stays out on track

@EyenPau on Twitter says: "Following FP1 thru @ESPNF1 app..feels like I'm in Silverstone too as it's also very rainy now in Manila. :))"

Glad we're not the only ones suffering with wet weather!

Luthando emails in to ask: "SHould the rain persist over the entire weekend without any dry running at all, how many DRY tyres will be destroyed at the end of this weekend?

"How many sets of wet tyres are available to each team for the entire weekend, it looks like if the entire weekend is wet then even more limited running is the order of the day."

In terms of wet tyres, the teams get four sets of intermediates and three sets of wets for the weekend, and if they use a set of inters on Friday then they are given an extra set. Dry tyre allocations are six sets of option tyres and five sets of primes - so eleven sets in total.

Ricciardo now making the most of the weather, but he's going round eight seconds off the pace

Karthik asks: "Can we see any dry running today or would it be completely wet?"

Completely wet I'm afraid!

Ian doesn't mind the rain though: "Hi, Looks like I might get my wish ... all drivers with the same amount and same type of tyres at the start of the race!"

Ricciardo has pitted but Vergne is still out there doing work for Toro Rosso

The track is still only good enough for full wet tyres, hence the lack of running going on because the teams would burn up some of their tyres that they could need later in the weekend

Vergne completes a lap that is 13 seconds off the pace. Kobayashi has now joined him on track though

We've just seen a shot of Timo Glock on the pit wall. We're looking at him through rain and he's wearing a beanie hat. This is summer in England.

A brief yellow flag caused by Vergne - we didn't see the incident as we were looking at Kobayashi, but seeing as Kamui was safely negotiating the Hangar straight it must have been the Toro Rosso

And another yellow. I get the feeling Vergne is struggling a bit out there. Both cleared relatively quickly though

Dylan emails in after checking the weather forecast to ask: "Do you think the rain will come?"

Yes, I do Dylan. We've had a lot of rain in Britain recently, and the main thing is it has been heavy at Silverstone. Even if it isn't raining during qualifying or the race, the track is still likely to be wet - it's hardly hot either!

Alan asks: "If each driver only has 3 sets of wet tires and the weekend was entirely wet (wet FPs, wet quali and wet race), wouldnt they run out of wet tires for race pretty fast? So it then becomes part of the strategy, I suppose?"

Exactly, Alan. The thing is, there's only a small window in race conditions that would actually see us racing on full wets. Too much standing water would cause a red flag, and a little bit less would allow the intermediates to be used.

Incidentally, we wouldn't race in these conditions. Visibility and standing water would have caused a red flag

Just Grosjean out on track now

And that doesn't last long, he pits and the track is quiet with 21 minutes to go

Karthik asks about DRS usage in the wet. The DRS is not allowed on full wet tyres, although there have been occasions when race control deems it safe enough to use during a race. It's down to Charlie Whiting's discretion

Raikkonen pits as Kobayashi goes out

McLaren is currently changing Hamilton's engine after checking everything was OK with it in FP1 - it was the same one he used at Valencia and the team wants to use it again in the future. There'll be no penalty, but means he won't be going back out in this session

@SanketBarik on Twitter asks: "@espnf1 will FP2 will be dry or it will be as dull as FP1.what the satellite computer tells about it."

It looks like still being wet later this afternoon, although some forecasts say the rain will ease so there's the chance for intermediate tyre running

Di Resta joins Grosjean out on track

Shathees emails in to ask: "Why are Alonso and Force India drivers wait when the conditions are not going to improve?"

It's because they want to look after their wet tyres - they only have three sets for the whole weekend and don't want to use them unnecessarily. As we speak, though, Alonso and di Resta have gone out on track

John emails in from South Africa: "Has there ever been a case where a grand prix has been cancelled due to the weather?"

We've had early stoppages, John, such as the Malaysian Grand Prix in 2009, but none cancelled due to the weather than I can think of off the top of my head. The Belgian Grand Prix of 1985 was postponed due to the track breaking up and run later in the year

Di Resta pits after two laps, while Alonso is still out there with Grosjean and Schumacher

I'm jinxing our chances of watching cars on track I think - as soon as I said who was out there they all pitted!

Alonso does a practice start at the end of the pit lane and rejoins. When asked about the conditions, however, Alonso says "Aquaplaning, a bit"

Red Bull has a new exhaust that we've just seen a shot off - a bit more of a bulge around the exhaust exit

Bottas has taken off his helmet and is done for the day. A shame for the reserve drivers - just seven laps for Bottas, 11 for Clos and only one for Bianchi

Massa runs through the pit lane and does a practice start

We have a bird on track! A little bird is splashing in a puddle. Pretty much the most exciting thing to happen in the last 30 minutes

Massa still the only man on track, and is told to do another wet practice start by his race engineer Rob Smedley

Massa pitted and that's the end of the session. Hardly the most dramatic or exciting that we've ever had, but it will be relevant come Sunday

Massa pitted and that's the end of the session. Hardly the most dramatic or exciting that we've ever had, but it will be relevant come Sunday

So Grosjean ends the session on top ahead of Ricciardo and Hamilton, but it's fairly pointless reading in to the times. The most productive team was Sauber, as Kobayashi completed 19 laps and Perez 11.

Justin in Cape Town asks: "Since I have been watching F1, Charlie Whiting has been the race director. Is there someone being groomed to take over from him once he retires? Or are there a lot of already qualified people available to take over?"

Charlie has been doing a great job and still has quite a few years left in him you'd imagine, but he works with a team at the FIA and there will be a number of personnel there who could step up

Erik says he wants a picture of the Bird - we'll see what we can get on the site before FP2!

So, what have we learned? Well, we know that when it rains at Silverstone, it rains. Apart from that - not a lot. Kobayashi seems happy enough driving in it, Alonso and Force India don't. Hopefully the rain will ease for FP2 and we'll see running on the intermediates at least, which should see drivers pushing harder. Join is in two hours.