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.
2021 FIA Formula 1 British Grand Prix – Free Practice 1
1 Max Verstappen Red Bull/Honda 1:27.035 23 243.667
2 Lando Norris McLaren/Mercedes 1:27.814 0.779 26 241.505
3 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:27.815 0.780 30 241.503
4 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:27.828 0.793 26 241.467
5 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 1:27.897 0.862 30 241.277
6 Carlos Sainz Ferrari 1:27.923 0.888 25 241.206
7 Sebastian Vettel Aston Martin/Mercedes 1:28.062 1.027 23 240.825
8 Sergio Pérez Red Bull/Honda 1:28.163 1.128 25 240.549
9 Daniel Ricciardo McLaren/Mercedes 1:28.211 1.176 28 240.418
10 Esteban Ocon Alpine/Renault 1:28.415 1.380 24 239.864
11 Pierre Gasly AlphaTauri/Honda 1:28.449 1.414 28 239.772
12 Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri/Honda 1:28.600 1.565 29 239.363
13 Antonio Giovinazzi Alfa Romeo/Ferrari 1:28.827 1.792 26 238.751
14 Fernando Alonso Alpine/Renault 1:28.873 1.838 24 238.628
15 Kimi Räikkönen Alfa Romeo/Ferrari 1:29.220 2.185 27 237.700
16 Nicholas Latifi Williams/Mercedes 1:29.227 2.192 27 237.681
17 Mick Schumacher Haas/Ferrari 1:29.227 2.192 24 237.681
18 Lance Stroll Aston Martin/Mercedes 1:29.597 2.562 21 236.699
19 Nikita Mazepin Haas/Ferrari 1:29.808 2.773 23 236.143
20 George Russell Williams/Mercedes 1:29.857 2.822 29 236.015
