It may have only been the first practice session, but Lewis Hamilton proved his Silverstone superiority lives on at Ferrari as the nine-time British Grand Prix winner set the fastest lap.
Hamilton won here last year for Mercedes but has been struggling for form since making the switch to the Scuderia, bar winning the Shanghai sprint race earlier this season.
The seven-time world champion sent the adoring home fans into raptures as his effort of 1m26892s was enough to keep compatriot and title challenger Lando Norris at bay.
Norris pipped McLaren team-mate Oscar Piastri to second as Charles Leclerc put the sister Ferrari fourth to continue something of an upturn in performance for the team in red.
George Russell had displaced Hamilton from the top of the timing sheets earlier in FP1 but had to settle for fifth, with the Haas of Oliver Bearman – the fourth full-time home driver in the field – down in 18th.
George Russell, Mercedes
Photo by: Glenn Dunbar / LAT Images via Getty Images
Reigning world champion Max Verstappen was down in 10th, with Arvin Lindblad – who was on his first F1 outing following the special dispensation given to the 17-year-old – not far adrift in the second Red Bull, a little over .500s away from the Dutchman’s best effort.
With the weather in Northamptonshire seemingly set fair for the day, there was plenty of running up and down the field, and even a couple of hairy moments into Copse.
Firstly, Pierre Gasly spun his Alpine a full 360 degrees and was lucky to keep going without any damage, before Gabriel Bortoleto – fresh from scoring his first F1 points in Austria last weekend – followed suit as he lost it on the curb and took a trip over the grass before continuing on.
With Bortoleto and Nico Hulkenberg, Sauber enjoyed a double points finish at the Red Bull Ring last time out, but the latter sat out FP1 at Silverstone and was replaced by Alpine loanee Paul Aron, who was 17th following his temporary switch.
F1 British GP results – FP1
Photos from British GP – Practice
In this article
Mark Mann-Bryans
Formula 1
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