Lando Norris made the perfect start to his home race weekend by topping the timesheets in FP1, with his rival Max Verstappen only managing P4.
Here’s how the first practice session played out.
Despite the cool conditions and the dissipating morning drizzle, the track proved challenging initially with limited grip. Early laps exceeded 90 seconds until Max Verstappen clocked in a 1m29.906s on hard tires, setting a more competitive benchmark.
Lewis Hamilton, a seven-time winner at Silverstone, then made a notable improvement with a 1m29.035s. His Mercedes teammate George Russell quickly bettered this with a 1m28.888s to top the timesheets.
A red flag disrupted the session when Yuki Tsunoda spun at Luffield, sending his car into the gravel. The interruption lasted about eight minutes while Tsunoda’s car was retrieved.
Russell continued to push the limits, posting a 1m28.156s on hard tires and later improving to 1m28.046s. However, Hamilton edged him out with a marginal 0.003s faster lap.
Carlos Sainz then set a 1m27.925s just before the session’s half-hour mark, as several top drivers switched to medium tires. Russell and Charles Leclerc utilized the medium compound to move to the top, but Verstappen nudged ahead of Russell by 0.01s. Verstappen briefly extended his lead by three-hundredths before Russell matched the gap again.
Oscar Piastri briefly took the top spot on soft tires, only to be outdone by his McLaren teammate Norris by two-tenths. Piastri’s session ended prematurely due to a suspected hydraulic issue, causing his car to stop and prompting a temporary closure of the pitlane entry.
Lance Stroll had an amazing session and placed his Aston Martin between the McLarens in second place, 0.134s behind Norris and 0.211s ahead of Piastri.
Verstappen remained the fastest on medium tires, followed by Russell, soft-shod Fernando Alonso, and Leclerc. Sainz’s hard-tire time secured him ninth place, ahead of Esteban Ocon.
Four rookie drivers took part in FP1, of which Ollie Bearman driving for HAAS, who have confirmed he’ll be a full-time driver for them in 2025 was the quickest, ith a 1m28.536s, placing 14th. Alpine reserve Jack Doohan finished 17th, ahead of Williams’ Franco Colapinto, while Isack Hadjar was 19th in the Red Bull RB20, narrowly avoiding an incident with Norris at the end of the session.
It’s a very promising start to the weekend for Lando. After last weekend’s clash with Max Verstappen that resulted in a DNF, the Brit will no doubt be wanted redemption in front of his home crowd.
Results
FP2 results:
- Lando NORRIS 1:27.420
- Lance STROLL +0.134
- Oscar PIASTRI +0.211
- Max VERSTAPPEN +0.309
- George RUSSELL +0.318
- Fernando ALONSO +0.374
- Lewis HAMILTON +0.438
- Charles LECLERC +0.483
- Carlos SAINZ +0.505
- Esteban OCON +0.554
- Nico HULKENBERG +0.662
- Valtteri BOTTAS +0.834
- Daniel RICCIARDO +1.057
- Oliver BEARMAN +1.116
- Guanyu ZHOU +1.170
- Alexander ALBON +1.229
- Jack DOOHAN +1.315
- Franco COLAPINTO +1.658
- Isack HADJAR +1.850
- Yuki TSUNODA +2.444
