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F1 British GP: Norris tops FP1 after early red flag

Lando Norris drew first blood at Silverstone to headline the opening Formula 1 practice session of the British Grand Prix weekend, which featured an early red flag.

In cool conditions, albeit with the disappearance of the morning's mizzling rain, the track surface proved somewhat difficult in the early phases as grip was at a premium. The early laps were over 90 seconds long, before Max Verstappen posted a 1m29.906s on the hard tyre to start bringing the pace into the right ballpark.

Lewis Hamilton, a seven-time British Grand Prix winner, made a significant leap with a 1m29.035s, before team-mate George Russell found a 1m28.888s time to move on top of the order.

Yuki Tsunoda produced a red flag as the opening 10 minutes drew to a close after losing grip at Luffield, spinning to send his RB into the gravel.

This prompted a hiatus of around eight minutes as the stranded VCARB 01 was collected from the gravel, before running could resume.

Russell again picked up the pace to set a 1m28.156s on the hard tyres and improved to a 1m28.046s shortly after, but Lewis Hamilton found a scant 0.003s advantage to move to the top of the order.

The two Mercedes were shaded by Carlos Sainz, who produced a 1m27.925s on the brink of the first half-hour's close. This coincided with a switch to the medium tyres among a handful of front-runners.

Yuki Tsunoda, RB F1 Team VCARB 01 (Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images)

Russell and Charles Leclerc pressed these into service to move to the top of the order, but Verstappen shaded Russell by just 0.01s on the medium compound. The Dutchman found an extra smidgen over Russell to briefly extend his advantage by an extra three-hundredths, before Russell responded in kind to restore the original gap.

Oscar Piastri then hurled his McLaren to the top of the order on soft tyres, but was then overlapped by team-mate Norris by two-tenths on the same compound. Piastri's misery was compounded after crawling to a stop on his way to the pitlane, apparently suffering with a hydraulic issue. This forced the brief closure of the pitlane entry, as Piastri's car was collected.

Lance Stroll had put his Aston Martin between the two McLarens in the order, 0.134s behind Norris, and 0.211s clear of Piastri.

Verstappen had the fastest medium-tyre time, besting Russell, the soft-shod Fernando Alonso, and Leclerc. Sainz's hard-tyre time was good enough for ninth, ahead of Esteban Ocon.

Of the four rookie drivers given an FP1 opportunity, recently signed Haas driver Ollie Bearman was quickest among them: the Briton celebrated his promotion to the 2025 line-up with a 1m28.536s, 14th in the order. Alpine reserve Jack Doohan beat Williams' Franco Colapinto to 17th, as Isack Hadjar was 19th fastest at the wheel of the Red Bull RB20 - nearly causing an incident with Norris at the end.

F1 British Grand Prix - Free Practice 1 results

   
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4
   
   
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2
   
Cla Driver # Chassis Engine Laps Time Interval km/h
1 United Kingdom L. Norris McLaren 4 McLaren Mercedes 26

1'27.420

  242.594
2 Canada L. Stroll Aston Martin Racing 18 Aston Martin Mercedes 22

+0.134

1'27.554

0.134 242.223
3 Australia O. Piastri McLaren 81 McLaren Mercedes 18

+0.211

1'27.631

0.077 242.010
4 Netherlands M. Verstappen Red Bull Racing 1 Red Bull Red Bull 25

+0.309

1'27.729

0.098 241.739
5 United Kingdom G. Russell Mercedes 63 Mercedes Mercedes 26

+0.318

1'27.738

0.009 241.715
6 Spain F. Alonso Aston Martin Racing 14 Aston Martin Mercedes 27

+0.374

1'27.794

0.056 241.560
7 United Kingdom L. Hamilton Mercedes 44 Mercedes Mercedes 26

+0.438

1'27.858

0.064 241.384
8 Monaco C. Leclerc Ferrari 16 Ferrari Ferrari 26

+0.483

1'27.903

0.045 241.261
9 Spain C. Sainz Ferrari 55 Ferrari Ferrari 27

+0.505

1'27.925

0.022 241.201
10 France E. Ocon Alpine 31 Alpine Renault 24

+0.554

1'27.974

0.049 241.066
11 Germany N. Hulkenberg Haas F1 Team 27 Haas Ferrari 22

+0.662

1'28.082

0.108 240.771
12 Finland V. Bottas Sauber 77 Sauber Ferrari 26

+0.834

1'28.254

0.172 240.301
13 Australia D. Ricciardo RB 3 RB Red Bull 24

+1.057

1'28.477

0.223 239.696
14 United Kingdom O. Bearman Haas F1 Team 50 Haas Ferrari 25

+1.116

1'28.536

0.059 239.536
15 China Z. Guanyu Sauber 24 Sauber Ferrari 24

+1.170

1'28.590

0.054 239.390
16 Thailand A. Albon Williams 23 Williams Mercedes 25

+1.229

1'28.649

0.059 239.231
17 Australia J. Doohan Alpine 61 Alpine Renault 22

+1.315

1'28.735

0.086 238.999
18 Argentina F. Colapinto Williams 45 Williams Mercedes 24

+1.658

1'29.078

0.343 238.078
19 France I. Hadjar Red Bull Racing 37 Red Bull Red Bull 15

+1.850

1'29.270

0.192 237.566
20 Japan Y. Tsunoda RB 22 RB Red Bull 5

+2.444

1'29.864

0.594 235.996
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