Max Verstappen has started the British Grand Prix weekend in strong form, leading a foreboding Red Bull Racing one-two in the weekend’s first practice session.
Verstappen hammered in two times on softs quick enough to top the session, his best being a 1m28.600s set on used rubber. Teammate Sergio Perez’s second attempt at a flying lap got him to only within 0.448s of the leader.
Both drivers have been equipped with fresh power units for the weekend and enjoyed a clean hour of running, bar Perez running over a large piece of canvas that had found its way onto the Hangar straight. Verstappen also complained about a lack of grip on the hard tire at the start of the day, describing it as like driving on ice.
Pirelli is using a new tire construction this weekend in response to increased downforce loads generated by the cars this year, and tire pressures are also very high around the high-energy circuit, set at 26.5 psi and 23 psi for the fronts and rears respectively.
Alex Albon was an excellent third and only 0.041s slower than Perez, the Thai driver benefitting from his Williams car’s strong straight-line speed.
Fernando Alonso was almost 0.2s slower for Aston Martin in fourth, beating Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari by 0.012s.
Esteban Ocon briefly led the session at the start of the soft-tire runs but ended a commendable sixth and 0.719s off the pace with his upgraded Alpine, beating Carlos Sainz to the spot.
Lando Norris was eighth with the second phase of his major McLaren upgrade, part of which was only finished in the lead-up to the session. He was 0.841s adrift ahead of Lance Stroll and McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri, who ended the hour in his garage with a hydraulic problem.
Nyck de Vries emerged unscathed from a trip through the gravel at Luffield to clock the 11th-quickest time.
Lewis Hamilton was the fastest Mercedes, taking 12th ahead of teammate George Russell in 14th. The team was back-to-back trialing a new front wing by trading it between the drivers, but both had more serious problems during the hour.
Hamilton reported “pretty bad” bouncing early in the session, and Russell reported vibrations through his steering wheel and struggled to string a lap together. Neither completed a lap on the soft tire, explaining the time disparity to the front of the field.
Pierre Gasly was sandwiched between the Mercedes cars in 13th ahead of Valtteri Bottas in 15th.
Yuki Tsunoda was 16th quickest ahead of Logan Sargeant, Zhou Guanyu and Haas teamamtes Kevin Magnussen and Nico Hulkenberg, the last of which appeared to shed some bodywork over the curbs late in the session.
