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Felipe Massa set the pace for Williams on the first day of the post-British Grand Prix Formula 1 test at Silverstone.

The Brazilian leapt to the top of the times with a late-morning run on Pirelli's medium compound tyre, setting a best lap of 1m35.242s, just over seven tenths of a second slower than Lewis Hamilton's best lap of the British GP weekend, set in the second free practice session.

Canadian GP winner Daniel Ricciardo spent the morning conducting aerodynamic tests for Red Bull and failed to register a flying lap, but put that right with a quick run in the final minutes that launched him up to second, just 0.006s slower than Massa.

Hamilton's Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg experimented with rear wing revisions on the W05 at Silverstone and was second fastest, 0.331s shy of Massa, for most of the afternoon before being bumped by Ricciardo in the final minutes.

Adrian Sutil's Sauber topped the times after the first hour of running, but he lost a big chunk of running to an engine problem and slipped to 10th before venturing out with a replacement powertrain in the afternoon.

He utilised it to good effect to make a late improvement and climb to fourth on the timesheet, the only other driver to dip below 1m36s.

Jules Bianchi will test for Ferrari in place of Kimi Raikkonen on Wednesday, and prepared by clocking more laps than anyone else on the opening day, with 108, and going fifth quickest for his regular team Marussia, just under a second off the pace.

The Frenchman's running was curtailed early in the final hour by a fire in the car's engine bay.

GP2 race winner Stoffel Vandoorne conducted constant-speed aero testing for McLaren in the morning before rounding out the top six with a quicker run in the afternoon that put him a tenth clear of the Force India of Sergio Perez.

Jean-Eric Vergne was another tenth of a second slower in rounding out the top eight.

The Frenchman completed the fewest laps of anybody (28) as he battled recurring battery problems with his Toro Rosso, and was responsible for four of the five red flags that interrupted Tuesday's running.

Pastor Maldonado went ninth fastest in the Lotus E22 in the afternoon, after running several dry laps on intermediate rubber in the morning.

The Venezuelan was over eight tenths of a second quicker than Ferrari development driver Pedro de la Rosa, who tested an experimental rear tyre construction for Pirelli in the morning, before the F14 T sprung a water leak.

GP2 racer Will Stevens racked up nearly 100 laps in bringing up the rear for Caterham, just over 2.6s seconds shy of the Ferrari.

Pos Driver Team/Car Time Gap Laps 1. Felipe Massa Williams-Mercedes 1m35.242s 42 2. Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull-Renault 1m35.248s +0.006s 72 3. Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1m35.573s +0.331s 90 4. Adrian Sutil Sauber-Ferrari 1m35.674s +0.432s 74 5. Jules Bianchi Marussia-Ferrari 1m36.148s +0.906s 108 6. Stoffel Vandoorne McLaren-Mercedes 1m36.462s +1.220s 71 7. Sergio Perez Force India-Mercedes 1m36.583s +1.341s 79 8. Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso-Renault 1m36.688s +1.446s 28 9. Pastor Maldonado Lotus-Renault 1m37.131s +1.889s 97 10. Pedro de la Rosa Ferrari 1m37.988s +2.746s 49 11. Will Stevens Caterham-Renault 1m40.627s +5.385s 95