The Alfa Romeo driver battled with the Ferraris of Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc for much of the hour-long session, taking third on his first attempt, 1m46.056s.
Leclerc led at the start with Sainz taking first place before Bottas relegated the pair, setting a 1m42.249s with just five minutes left on the clock.
The session ended prematurely after Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll went wide in the wet patches at Copse, lost the rear end and ended up on the beach in the gravel trap.
Lewis Hamilton qualified late on to second, 0.5 seconds behind his former team-mate, while Sainz and Leclerc took third and fourth respectively.
Heavy, dark rain clouds descended on the Northamptonshire circuit ahead of the session, with steady showers prompting a slow start to the run.
Mercedes pair Lewis Hamilton and George Russell were first out of the pits to cheers from their home crowd, while Ferrari pair Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc followed soon after.
Both the Brit and Sainz opted for an installation lap and pitted as Leclerc recorded the first time of the weekend on board with a 1m44.769s.
Changeable conditions at the 5.891km circuit made things difficult for the teams, with the track much wetter around Copse, while the run from Stowe to Hamilton Straight remained almost dry.
Leclerc improved to 1m43.801s in his second attempt, which remained the only one on the schedule for 10 minutes, before Yuki Tsunoda clocked 1m51.373s in his AlphaTauri.
Sebastian Vettel was next on track before team-mate Lance Stroll took second, albeit 10 seconds behind Leclerc.
Carlos Sainz was next to set a representative lap, clocking 1m49s just behind his team-mate, before improving to take top spot on his second lap with a 1m42.967s.
Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes-AMG
Photo by: Steve Etherington / Motorsport Images
A short series of fast laps saw Kevin Magnussen take second from Leclerc to split Ferrari ahead of Sainz’s second attempt, while Alfa Romeo swapped third place with Zhou setting a 1m46.171s before Bottas went just over 0.1s further. quickly.
The former Mercedes driver then set a 1m43.437s to split the Ferraris, running just under 0.4s ahead of Leclerc in third.
Less than half of the grid had midway board times, then the rain resumed to further complicate the process.
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Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, who completed just one installation lap with 20 minutes left on the clock, was seen chatting with his father Joss in the garage as Lewis Hamilton came out to wave to the adoring fans.
The seven-time world champion took to the track hesitantly with 10 minutes remaining, battling wet sector two and a strong headwind at Turn 15 to take seventh in 1m49.476s, 6.5s clear of Sainz in the leader, before nearly five seconds on your next try.
Bottas improved to second to split the Ferraris before taking first place before much of the field went out with five minutes remaining as conditions improved.
Hamilton’s late climb to second dropped Sainz and Leclerc, but it was not enough to take top spot in a race he has won eight times.
Mick Schumacher finished fifth for Haas, with Guanyu Zhou separating the German and team-mate Kevin Magnussen in seventh.
Stroll took eighth despite his late crash, with Tsunoda and Vettel completing the top 10 and leaving the rest of the grid with no time on board.
F1 British GP: Full FP1 results
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