2021 British Grand Prix FP1 report & highlights: Verstappen sets qualifying milestone after dominating opening practice at Silverstone

Ninety thousand fans took to the stands at Silverstone to watch Max Verstappen’s first practice as the British Grand Prix weekend began under blue skies. McLaren’s Lando Norris rebounded after a tough week to take P2, ahead of fellow Mercedes Lewis Hamilton in P3, ahead of this afternoon’s qualifying session.

In a revised experimental format this weekend, FP1 was the only one-hour session before qualifying at Silverstone, the result of which will set the grid for the first Sprint F1 on Saturday afternoon. As a result, the teams wereted no time getting on the track, first on a mix of medium and hard tires before moving on to soft drinks about 20 minutes from the end.

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Red Bull driver Verstappen started with hard tires and complained that his seat belts were poorly adjusted, but when he replaced the midrange he made it to the top of the timesheets with a benchmark of 1m27,745s . Moving on to soft, he improved to 1m27.035s – 0.779s ahead of local McLaren driver Norris. Notably, Norris has set its benchmark on medium tires rather than softs.

Defending champion Hamilton was third on soft, 0.780s off pace in his upgraded Mercedes W12, while Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari was fourth. Hamilton’s teammate Valtteri Bottas took P5 and was 0.862 seconds off pace, ahead of Carlos Sainz in P6 – the Spaniard having spun at Turn 3 before setting his fastest lap.

Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel wears a new engine, turbo and MGU-H for this weekend and made a late jump to seventh place on the soft, keeping Mexican Sergio Perez at bay in P8 for Red Bull.

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This left Daniel Ricciardo in ninth place for McLaren, and with a new chassis and MGU-K, Esteban Ocon placed his Alpine in P10 while teammate Fernando Alonso was 14th.

The AlphaTauris finished 11th and 12th, Pierre Gasly more than a tenth faster than Yuki Tsunoda, with Antonio Giovinazzi of Alfa Romeo 13th – his teammate Kimi Raikkonen 15th behind Alonso.

Nikita Mazepin de Haas finished 19th, his teammate Mick Schumacher six tenths ahead in P17. Between them was Lance Stroll’s Aston Martin, who said he lacked confidence in the balance of his car at the end of the session.

Williams ‘George Russell is hoping the crack in his rearview mirror won’t prove to be a cause for concern as he completed Williams’ P20 standings, while teammate Nicholas Latifi won a solid P16.

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With the next qualifying round at 6:00 p.m. local time, who will make history and start ahead for the very first Sprint F1 on Saturday? Stay tuned for live coverage and all the reaction over the 2021 British Grand Prix weekend.