Susie Wolff’s historic appearance at Silverstone ended after one timed lap as her Williams team endured a difficult first practice session.

Wolff is the first woman to take part in a grand prix weekend in 22 years, but an engine problem forced her to stop on lap two of her first run.

Minutes later, teammate Felipe Massa lost control at Stowe, badly damaging his car in a 130mph crash.

The Grove-based Williams team managed to repair both cars for the second practice session.

Development driver Wolff admitted she was disappointed, but said she had learned things to take into her next appearance, at German Grand Prix in two weeks’ time.

“Really tough day, but that’s F1 sometimes,” said the 31-year-old Scot, who was driving Valtteri Bottas’s car.

“We had an oil-pressure problem, which cut the engine off. The guys are looking at it and hopefully they can get it fixed.”

She added: “Going out on the track was just the best feeling. When you put your helmet on, that’s the best.”

Nico Rosberg was fastest, ahead of Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton.

Pastor Maldonado and Romain Grosjean from the Enstone-based Lotus team were 14th and 15th respectively.

Jules Bianchi, from Banbury’s Marussia team, was 19th with teammate Max Chilton 21st, while Kamui Kobayashi and Marcus Ericsson from Leafield-based Caterham were 20th and 22nd.

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