Under a blazing sun, the Dutchman Max Verstappen dominated the first day of free practice of the GP of Great Britain, 10th round of the Formula 1 world championship, being the fastest during the two sessions on Friday at Silverstone. The reigning double world champion, who won seven of the first nine races of the season, including the last five, once again made his superiority known on the legendary English circuit. “Overall the car felt good today so I’m happy. She performed well in both sessions and we were able to complete our program so it was a good day,” said Verstappen.
If he relegated his pursuers to almost half a second at midday, he had to work at the end of the afternoon to repel the attacks of the Ferrari of Carlos Sainz, who failed only 22 thousandths of the Red Bull N.1. However, the Scuderia did not have a completely positive day since the other single-seater of Monegasque Charles Leclerc was unable to turn during the second session due to an “electrical problem”, thus losing precious minutes of driving for perfect the settings for qualifying on Saturday. “Friday was more complicated than expected. The lap times for qualifying were encouraging, but there is still work to be done in terms of race pace. In addition, Charles was reduced to the role of spectator because of a short circuit on his SF23”, explained the Italian team.
Mercedes, who are using a new front wing this weekend, struggled all day. Local idol Lewis Hamilton was only 12th in the first session and 15th in the second, more than a second behind Verstappen. His teammate and compatriot George Russell, who complained several times on the radio that his car was uncontrollable, did little better by taking 14th place at midday and 12th at the end of the afternoon.
Williams, who begins this weekend at home the celebrations of the 800th F1 Grand Prix in its history, a figure that the British team will reach in Budapest in two weeks, was however at the party to everyone’s surprise. The Thai Alex Albon indeed finished on the third step of the podium of each session, yielding only 218 thousandths to the undisputed leader of the world championship during the second session where he beat the other Red Bull of the Mexican Sergio Pérez. The American rookie Logan Sargeant, 17th at midday and rather used to appearing at the back of the pack, meanwhile won an unexpected fifth place on Friday afternoon. “It was a very good day for us today, but we have to keep our feet on the ground because we don’t know what our competitors had put in place today”, however tempered Albon.
On the side of Aston Martin, the Canadian Lance Stroll was, for once, faster than his teammate Fernando Alonso by achieving the sixth time, against the tenth for the Spanish veteran. Alpine, which is also testing a new front wing at Silverstone, a circuit just 45 kilometers from its Enstone factory, had a mixed day. Esteban Ocon, sixth in the first session, finished 13th in the second with very little improvement in his time. Pierre Gasly experienced the opposite scenario as he took 13th place at midday and finished 8th at the end of the afternoon, progressing by almost a second.