Red Bull driver Pierre Gasly finally showed his true colours when he topped the timing sheets at the end of the first free practice of the British Grand Prix weekend, followed by the Mercedes of Valtteri Bottas.
Although the session means little in the greater context of the race weekend, it was still a much-needed boost for the beleaguered Frenchman whose best lap of 1:27.173 was four tenths faster than Bottas in second.
Gasly made the most on the softest Pirelli tyres available for the weekend with a last-ditch effort that knocked Bottas off the top of the timing screens, suggesting that Red Bull had him primed for a much needed confidence booster.
Max Verstappen was third fastest, albeit eight tenths down on his teammate, implying that the Dutchman has yet to turn up the wick. The same applying to Lewis Hamilton in fourth.
Charles Leclerc and last year's winner Sebastian Vettel were fifth and sixth for Ferrari, the pair over a second down on the top time.
Renault seem to have found the sweet spot early as they were best of the rest, with Nico Hulkenberg seventh but 1.6 seconds down on the top time with Daniel Ricciardo a couple of tenths shy of his teammate good enough for eighth.
Alex Albon was ninth in the Toro Rosso ahead of McLaren's Carlos Sainz who rounded out the top ten but having set his best time using the medium tyres, unlike the top nine who set their best times on the red band Pirelli softs. The Spaniard's teammate Lando Norris was 11th.
Early on in the session, Romain Grosjean embarrassed himself when he crashed the Haas exiting the pit-lane, triggering a comedy of errors that did his rock-bottom shares no favours.
Notably, George Russell took 17th place in the Williams, ahead of Kimi Raikkonen (who stopped on track with a technical issue) and Romain Grosjean.
The rookie 1.5 seconds faster than teammate Robert Kubica who was slowest of all in the morning session - neither of the Williams drivers using the soft Pirelli tyres.
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