Lewis Hamilton was fastest in practice for the British Grand Prix; the nine-time race winner set a 29.260 to put himself just over two tenths faster than the championship leader, Kimi Antonelli. The Ferrari driver goes into his home race off the back of his maiden win for the team in Barcelona three weeks ago and looks to be the closest challenger to Mercedes.<\/p>\n
Ferrari and Hamilton had played down their chances of fighting Mercedes this weekend given their advantage at this kind of circuit, but in Thursday\u2019s press conference the seven-time champion was bullish, vowing he “won’t stop” until he wins a record-breaking eighth world title.<\/p>\n
In more encouragement for Hamilton, he was also quickest on the hard tyre runs, so appears to genuinely be in with a chance of making inroads into Antonelli’s championship lead – with points also on offer for Saturday afternoon’s Sprint at Silverstone.<\/p>\n
Antonelli managed to split the two Ferraris after he went just under four tenths faster than Charles Leclerc, while his championship rival George Russell was fourth, a further eight hundredths behind. Leclerc was six tenths off his teammate\u2019s fastest time, and ahead of Oscar Piastri by two tenths.<\/p>\n
Max Verstappen was sixth, the Red Bull driver managing to split the two McLarens as he was nearly a tenth behind Piastri and ahead of Lando Norris by nearly half a tenth. While his teammate Isack Hadjar completed the top four teams, going eighth fastest. Hadjar looked strong on the hard tyres; however, he appeared to struggle to maintain that on the softs.<\/p>\n
Norris also appeared to struggle during one of his runs, when one of his times was deleted for track limits, and he was forced to abort his next attempt, returning to the garage after running in eighth.\u00a0 Someone who managed to find a fix for his troubles was Antonelli, who shook off his early complaints around energy deployment to go fastest, eking out an advantage of nearly two tenths over Hadjar.<\/p>\n
The top four teams being covered by a second in the weekend\u2019s only practice session was busy, resulting in tumbling lap times and multiple changes of lead; however, soft running appeared limited as the compound is usually the hard compound.<\/p>\n
Nico Hulkenberg, who a year ago scored his maiden podium, started the weekend strongly, putting his Audi ninth, four tenths behind the Red Bull on the mediums, as he went a tenth faster than the Racing Bull of Liam Lawson, who completed the top ten.<\/p>\n
Franco Colapinto put his Alpine eleventh as he missed out on the top ten by just over a tenth, as the Argentine went three tenths faster than fellow South American Gabriel Botoleto. Arvid Lindblad, in his first home race, started the weekend by putting his Racing Bull three and a half hundredths ahead of fellow Englishman Ollie Bearman.<\/p>\n
Carlos Sainz split the Haas; he was three tenths behind Bearman and set the same time as Esteban Ocon. Sainz\u2019s Williams teammate Alex Albon was just under a hundredth and a half further behind.<\/p>\n
Valtteri Bottas put himself nearly a tenth faster than his Cadillac teammate Sergio Perez, with Fernando Alonso the first on the softs, seven tenths behind the Mexican, with Pierre Gasly over a tenth faster than Lance Stroll.<\/p>\n