FP1, Silverstone: Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari) fastest, Piastri spins

Things are looking good for local hero Lewis Hamilton’s home Grand Prix at Silverstone! The Briton set the fastest time in FP1 – and that will remain the fastest practice time of the weekend. The 60-minute FP1 session on Friday afternoon was the only one of the F1 weekend in England: A Sprint event is taking place at Silverstone. This means that Sprint qualifying will take place after just a single practice session. Then on Saturday, the Sprint and Grand Prix qualifying sessions – and on Sunday, as usual, the British Grand Prix.

A major topic of discussion at Silverstone before the cars took to the track for the first time: how will the new engine regulations for the 2026 season affect the race weekend on the high-speed circuit built on the site of the former airfield? The Silverstone Circuit has many fast sections, including numerous corners that are taken at high speed. Braking zones – which are so crucial for recharging the battery with the new engines – are few and far between. One thing became clear in the first practice session: the battle for lap times was thrilling, with several teams right up there at the front.

Given the lack of set-up time, the 22 drivers were in a real hurry during Friday’s midday practice session, with an air temperature of 21.4 degrees Celsius and 38 on the track. With the exception of Max Verstappen (Red Bull Racing), everyone set off quickly, initially all on hard tyres. And just four minutes later, four-time world champion Verstappen was also out on track.

Norris went off the track several times

McLaren driver Lando Norris (out on track in an unusual special livery featuring white and green) struggled at the start, repeatedly finding himself at the very bottom of the timesheets because two of his fast laps were disallowed after he went off the track.

At the front, the early stages saw a close battle between the top four teams – Red Bull Racing, Mercedes, McLaren and Ferrari – with Isack Hadjar leading the way after 15 minutes (1:30.969 mins). After a pit stop, Kimi Antonelli (1:30.777 mins, also on hard tyres) overtook him in the timesheets. Further down the field were the usual suspects: Aston Martin, Cadillac and Williams, listed in reverse order. Audi and the Racing Bulls were well behind the leading teams.

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Halfway through the session, the first soft tyres of the weekend were deployed: Fernando Alonso went out on softs. Meanwhile, Hamilton moved to the very top of the timesheets with a time of 1:30.521 min. Shortly afterwards, there was a brief yellow flag as Oscar Piastri skidded over a kerb, spun and briefly went off the track. Nothing serious happened; Piastri returned to the pits.

US-Lackierung bei Cadillac anlässlich des 4. Juli

Foto: XPB

Cadillac driver Sergio Perez complained of problems with his helmet, where apparently more air was coming through the ventilation slots than he’d hoped. To mark the country’s 250th birthday on Saturday, Perez is racing this weekend entirely decked out in the US flag – on his car and on his helmet too.

Hamilton takes the lead!

Until the final quarter of an hour, most drivers were out on hard tyres (except for Cadillac and Aston Martin on softs, and the Racing Bulls on mediums). When the top teams then made their tyre changes too, the lap times dropped again: Piastri on 1:30.147, Russell on 1:29.938 with the first sub-1:30 time – then Antonelli (1:29.473) and Hamilton (1:29.260, all on Softs). Hamilton thus finished almost six tenths (0.599 sec) ahead of his team-mate Charles Leclerc. The gap between the Mercedes drivers was 0.46 seconds.

At 17.30 Central European Summer Time, the action continues with the Sprint Qualifying, which you can follow here on our live ticker.