Lewis Hamilton led Rand Norris and Oscar Piastri in the fastest time in his first practice at the British Grand Prix.
Hamilton set his first weekend benchmark at 1M26.892S in Ferrari’s first Grand Prix appearance at home. Britton used a set of soft tires last weekend to run past the winner Norris in Austria in just 0.023 seconds. Piastri followed with a second McLaren 0.127.
McLaren brought another round upgrade to the already impressive MCL39 in time for his first practice, but in mild silverstone conditions, its value is less unknown in mild silverstone conditions with a track surface of 105 degrees F and ambient temperature of 75 degrees F.
Charles Leclerc was fourth and 0.203 seconds from his teammate’s pace, and this year he was not relieved by softer soft compounds than in 2024 on his fastest lap.
Isack Hadjar was sixth in a strong weekend start for the Racing Bulls. Hadger and teammate Liam Lawson, who were eighth at the end of the session, were the fastest drivers in the first 15 minutes, with the Frenchman still remaining at 0.325 seconds until the end of the time.
Hadger and Lawson pinched Alex Albon into P7 for Williams, and Andrea Kimmi Antoneri went on for the ninth time.
Reigning champion Max Verstappen dropped to 10th place and 0.54 seconds from the pace. The Dutch complained early understeering through slow speed corners, but it was a clear oversteer through high speed bends.
Fernando Alonso on the 11th was 0.166 seconds longer than his teammate Lance went for a walk on the 11th and 12RH, but the Spaniard was the only one to equip him with the new Aston Martin upgrade package as part of a comparison test with his teammates. Both cars will run with upgraded specifications later today.
Carlos Sainz was 13th in the second Williams car after a big run on the curb of the copse an hour early, and later said there was no damage to the reporting, although it appeared that he needed repairs.
Red Bull Junior Arvid Lindblad was represented on behalf of Yuki Tsunoda for his first scheduled FP1 in Red Bull Racing. Currently, his sixth victory in this year’s Formula 2 Championship, the highly-rated 17-year-old was 14th and not at 1.066 seconds.
Esteban Ocon was 15th despite reporting a breakdown in the brake pedal, and needed an unplanned visit to Pit Lane ahead of Franco Colapinto in 16th.
Alpine Junior Paul Aron dominated Nico Halkengel’s Sauber in one of two FP1 sessions with future Audi teams prior to the mid-season break, securing a temporary loan to gain more mileage. The 21-year-old Estonian was 1.25 seconds on the 16th.
Oliver Bareman was 18th place after Pierre Guthrie, and he spun out of the 360-degree Copse earlier in the day.
