FP1 REPORT: Verstappen quickest by seven tenths, Norris in P2

With just one practice session before qualifying, unlike the usual three, it was vitally important that the drivers adapted to the circuit immediately, and Verstappen did this better than anyone.

All three practice sessions were sort of rolled into one, and it worked, with plenty of quick laps.

Charles Leclerc was fourth, ahead of Valtteri Bottas and teammate Carlos Sainz.

Sebastian Vettel, Sergio Perez, Daniel Ricciardo and Esteban Ocon rounded off the top 10.

At the other end of things, George Russell was the slowest car on track despite the backing of a home crowd, and rumours of a Mercedes future hanging over his head.

As it happened

Carlos Sainz of Ferrari was the first car out on the track, with home favourites Lando Norris, George Russell and Lewis Hamilton in particular out to the delight of the crowd.

The Spaniard went straight to the top with a time of 1:35.241, but once Max Verstappen completed a flying lap, he was displaced. The Dutchman put in a 1:30.274, but his title rival Hamilton put in a 1:30.048 to the delight of the Silverstone faithful.

After 10 minutes, the Aston Martin duo of Lance Stroll and Sebastian Vettel were the only drivers not to set a lap time, but they rectified that by going P8 and P10 immediately. Before then, however, Nikita Mazepin became the first driver to have a lap time deleted for exceeding track limits.

Valtteri Bottas and Hamilton swapped places between P1 and P2 in the early running, with the Red Bull pair in third and fourth, although they were bumped down a place by Eseteban Ocon who put in a 1:30.700 with 15 minutes to go.

However, Sergio Perez leapfrogged him once he exited the pits, going to the top timings by half a second. He then was displaced by his teammate Verstappen who went nearly seven tenths clear on his first proper flying lap. Perez closed this gap down to three tenths soon, but Verstappen then extended this back out to a 0.760 after his next quick lap.

Whilst that happened, Lando Norris had a little wobble but caused no harm. He and Daniel Ricciardo were, however, down in 11th and 12th with 35 minutes of FP1 remaining.

Verstappen's dominance was shown by the fact that with half of the session remaining, he was 1.7 seconds quicker than Hamilton in fifth place.

The track and drivers started to get quicker as time went on, with Charles Leclerc going from P17 up to P3 with his first flying lap on the medium tyre. Shortly after, Hamilton was on the team radio to say "blister front right". The man who could be his teammate next season, George Russell, was over four seconds down on Verstappen with less than half of the session remaining, and was in the pits with Nicholas Latifi.

His fellow Brit, Norris went up to third place on the medium tyres, before he was displaced by Ricciardo, as the track rubbered in. However, they couldn't get close to Verstappen who put in a lap time of 1:27.035 to go quickest by over a second. Norris then went second fastest, 0.7 seconds down on the Dutchman.

Qualifying simulations started getting underway, and the session began to feel like FP3 as teams prepared for their qualifying pace and set-up.

McLaren showed their speed, with both cars in the top six with 10 minutes to go, despite running the medium tyres, whilst the rest used the softs.

The session ended with Verstappen looking imperious, and the cars went into Parc Ferme, with no major changes allowed before qualifying.

Standings

1. Max Verstappen (1:27.035)

2. Lando Norris 

3. Lewis Hamilton

4. Charles Leclerc

5. Valtteri Bottas

6. Carlos Sainz

7. Sebastian Vettel

8. Sergio Perez

9. Daniel Ricciardo

10. Esteban Ocon

11. Pierre Gasly

12. Yuki Tsunoda

13. Antonio Giovinazzi

14. Fernando Alonso

15. Kimi Raikkonen

16. Nicholas Latifi

17. Mick Schumacher

18. Lance Stroll

19. Nikita Mazepin

20. George Russell