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

Perez 2nd, Albon 3rd

Max Verstappen topped the timesheet in the opening practice session for this weekend’s British Grand Prix, beating Red Bull team-mate Sergio Pérez by almost half a second. Williams’ Alex Albon finished in third place ahead of the Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso.

Verstappen was quickly to the fore when the session got underway, posting a P1 time of 1:30.443 on hard tyres. Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll used medium compound Pirelli tyres to go second with a lap of 1:30.979 as drivers worked through their run plans in warm temperatures at the Northamptonshire track.

Nyck de Vries went off track briefly as the session edged towards the quarter-hour mark but after losing control at Luffield the Dutch driver was able to steer his AlphTauri out of the gravel trap and continue.

Verstappen then lowered the benchmark to 1:29.863, though the championship leader complained that it was “like driving on ice”, while Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc moved to second place ahead of team-mate Carlos Sainz. Both were almost a second off the Red Bull, despite using medium tyres.

Sergio Pérez then took P3 just two tenths of a second off his team-mate and Williams’ Logan Sargeant briefly took a headline-grabbing third place, albeit on soft tyres.

As the session hit the halfway point, Verstappen was at last deposed when Sainz claimed top spot with a soft tyres lap of 1:29.357. That put him half a second clear of the Dutchman with Pérez third ahead of AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda and Sargeant. Local hero Lewis Hamilton was in sixth and complaining that “bouncing is pretty bad”.

Leclerc then moved to second place with a lap of 1:29.418s but with a little less than 20 minutes left Alpine’s Esteban Ocon shot to the top of the timesheet with a lap of 1:29.319.

His stay was short though as Leclerc went for another attempt and this time he moved to P1 with a lap of 1:29.280.

Pérez was the first of the Red Bulls to make the switch to soft rubber but his first attempt on the red-banded tyre, a 1:29.333, only netted him third place. But Vertsappen was also out on the softs and when he crossed the line he vaulted back to the top with a lap of 1:28.836, which he then improved to 1:28.600. Pérez wasn’t done, however, and he claimed P2 with a lap 1:29.048 moments after Albon had scaled the order with his best lap of 1:29.089 which was good enough for third.

Fourth place went to Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso who finished 0.668 off Verstappen while Leclerc had to settle for fifth on a circuit the Monegasque driver said might not provide the same boost as Ferrari experience in Austria and Canada.

Ocon took sixth for Alpine, ahead of the second Ferrari of Sainz, while Lando Norris was eight in a McLaren boasting more upgrades following the suite the team had already introduced in Austria. Lance Stroll was ninth in the second Aston Martin and the final top 10 spot went to Oscar Piastri in the second McLaren.