Valtteri Bottas was fastest in the first practice session ahead of the British Grand Prix. The Alfa Romeo driver set a 42.249 to go half a second faster than the Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton, in a session which saw very limited running due to wet conditions and teams being limited on wet tyres.
The Finn’s fastest time was set on the intermediates as the drivers completed their runs towards the end of the session, with only half of the drivers putting a time on the board. The Mercedes in wet conditions however didn’t appear throughout Hamilton’s ten laps to be porpoising a good sign at this early stage of the weekend.
Mercedes was the team who did the most laps as Hamilton and teammate George Russell did their best to entertain fans. The team were first out on track, along with the two Ferrari’s both teams opting to do several installation laps before Charles Leclerc was the first driver to set a time.
- Mercedes have brought a raft of crucial car upgrades to Hamilton and team-mate George Russell’s home race, with team boss Toto Wolff even insisting that the Silver Arrows are in contention for their first victory of the season. But conditions mean it was impossible to gauge how much or if they have managed to get closer to Red Bull and Ferrari.
Carlos Sainz put his Ferrari third going eight and a half tenths faster than his teammate Leclerc. However, given the conditions their main rivals Red Bull didn’t set a time making it difficult to gauge which team is ahead going into this weekend. Ferrari however is aware they need to hit back at Red Bull if they are going to keep the title race going.
Mick Schumacher put his Haas fifth fastest, the German over a second and a half faster than his teammate Kevin Magnussen. They were spilt by Guanyu Zhou the Chinese driver just under two tenths faster than Magnussen. Earlier in the session, the Danish driver had briefly gone second splitting the Ferrari’s as he traded places with the Alfa Romeo,
Lance Stroll put his Aston Martin eighth with his teammate Sebastian Vettel tenth, spilt by the Alpha Tauri of Yuki Tsunoda. However, Vettel’s time was nowhere near representative as he was fifteen seconds off the pace.
Stroll’s also brought FP1 to an early close when he attempted a run on the slick tyre, he went wide after losing control at Copse he became beached in the gravel.
Several teams have taken significant technical developments to Silverstone as they seek to improve their performance. Red Bull and Ferrari have brought new engine covers to improve the airflow to the rear, thus increasing downforce.
Williams currently last in the constructors’ championship, and have the biggest upgrade taking inspiration from Red Bull. Alpine also have a redesigned bodywork and floor.
