Stake F1 Team KICK Sauber had a solid first day of practice at the historical Silverstone Circuit.

As on-track proceedings for the British Grand Prix got underway, Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu took their C44s through two busy sessions, just avoiding some last-minute rain that did not result in any missed action.

With positive first indications from the track, the team will now crunch all data overnight as we aim to extract every little bit of potential ahead of tomorrow's qualifying session.

Valtteri Bottas: "Based on what we saw today, we seem to be in a better place compared to the previous weeks, but in the end it's the next two days that really matter. The feeling with the car was better and we didn't have any issues troubling the balance: we made some improvements on last weekend; the car is more balanced in the high-speed corners, and we took small steps forward to make the stability better. We tried different things with the two cars, so we have plenty of data, and of course we will still need to find something overnight, as everyone will - it's the name of the game. We're one tenth away from the top ten, though, and this gives us a lot of motivation to keep pushing."

Zhou Guanyu: "It's good to be back in Silverstone, a truly enjoyable and fun track to drive. Today's sessions focused on gathering data and information, and while there's still work to do to refine the car's baseline and balance, everything already feels better than last weekend out in Spielberg. The team continues working on the car to set us up for tomorrow's qualifying session, where we could have opportunities for a good result."

Check out our Friday gallery from Silverstone here.