Silverstone, FP1: Verstappen quickest in opening practice for British GP

Max Verstappen set the quickest lap of the opening practice session for the British Grand Prix, with the Red Bull driver eclipsing McLaren’s Lando Norris and title rival Lewis Hamilton by almost eight tenths of a second.

With a new format in place for the weekend to accommodate tomorrows first Sprint Qualifying and with just a single one-hour practice session at their disposal ahead of Friday evening’s Qualifying session, teams were forced to hit the ground running at Silverstone in search of a workable set-up.

Hamilton set the early pace with a lap of 1:30.048 set on medium tyres, before Verstappen moved from hard to medium compound Pirellis and posted a time of 1:28.179, over half a second faster than team-mate Sergio Pérez. Verstappen then improved by four tenths of a second as he stretched well away from his rivals.

He maintained a healthy gap when he switched to soft tyres too. The Dutchman recorded a lap of 1:27.035 to initially go over a second clear of Pérez, but McLaren’s Norris impressed with a time of 1:27.814 set on medium tyres.

Hamilton then bolted on a set of softs but the defending champion couldn’t match the pace of Verstappen or Norris and he finished the session in third place, 0779s behind the Red Bull driver but just 0.001s off Norris.

Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc moved up to fourth place with a late flying lap on softs that shuffled Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas.

Leclerc’s team-mate Carlos Sainz took sixth place, with Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel taking seventh place ahead of the second Red Bull of Pérez. Daniel Ricciardo was ninth for McLaren ahead of Esteban Ocon who was tenth for Alpine.