the cockpit in the event of an accident. The initial testing was carried out by Ferrari to assess the shield's design ahead of a planned introduction in . Sebastian Vettel responded negatively to the design, cutting short his testing of the device and subsequently reporting that the concave shape of the shield distorted his vision and made him feel dizzy. Mercedes's Valtteri Bottas went fastest in first practice, setting a time of 1:29.106. He was followed by his teammate Lewis Hamilton and the Red Bull of Max Verstappen in second and third. In second practice, Bottas was fastest followed by Hamilton and Räikkönen. Saturday's third and final practice was topped by Hamilton, with Vettel second and Bottas third. Hamilton set the quickest time of all three practices with a 1:28.063, closely followed by Vettel who set a 1:28.095. Qualifying Q1 was affected by rain and most drivers used intermediate tyres. Daniel Ricciardo's Red Bull experienced a turbo failure, ending his qualifying run. Fernando Alonso opted to change to supersoft tyres during the final minutes of Q1 as the track dried. He subsequently set the fastest time of the session, a 1:37.598. In Q3, Lewis Hamilton secured pole position with a 1:26.600, 0.547 seconds quicker than Kimi Räikkönen in second, and 0.756 seconds quicker than Vettel in third. Nico Hülkenberg gave Renault team its best qualifying result since its return to F1 in 2016, with fifth. Hamilton's pole equalled Jim Clark's record for most poles at the British Grand Prix. Valtteri Bottas set the fourth fastest time during Q3 but started from ninth position after being set back five places as a result of an unauthorised gearbox change. Subsequently, Max Verstappen started fourth. Race In the formation lap Jolyon Palmer suffered a hydraulic failure and retired from the race. Another formation lap was held and thus the grand prix was shortened to 51 laps instead of the scheduled 52 laps. At the start, Hamilton easily pulled away opening a 1.6 seconds gap to Räikkönen after just one lap. Sebastian Vettel, starting from third, was overtaken by Max Verstappen. Valtteri Bottas started his slow run towards what would become a second place, overtaking both McLaren Honda driver Stoffel Vandoorne and Sergio Pérez in a Force India, who started from eight and sixth respectively. A crash of the Toro Rosso drivers Carlos Sainz Jr. and Daniil Kvyat, caused by Kvyat, brought out the