#F1 #BritishGP FP1: @LewisHamilton quickest ahead of @McLarenF1 duo.

Hamilton British GP FP1 – Seven-time world champion Sir Lewis Hamilton returned to his home Grand Prix Silverstone as a Ferrari driver to top opening practice at the British GP ahead of McLaren pairing Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri who were second and third respectively.

Hamilton set the session-topping benchmark on the C4 red side-walled softer compounds and was a slim 0.023 seconds quicker than Norris whilst Piastri was a further 0.150 seconds off in third.

Red Bull reserve Arvind Lindblad ran in FP1 in-place of Yuki Tsunoda whilst Paul Aron piloted the Sauber C47 entry of Nico Hulkenberg.

Haas’s Esteban Ocon lead the pack out with the C3 yellow-marked mediums and was joined by both Williams of Carlos Sainz and Alexander Albon on the C2 white-branded harder rubber.

Sauber’s Gabriel Bortoleto was the first to register a lap-time of a 1:32.785 then was beaten by Alpine’s Franco Colapinto and Pierre Gasly’s efforts and RB’s Liam Lawson.

Ferrari’s Sir Lewis Hamilton then jumped to P1 on his medium tyre stint; this was momentarily until Norris then shot to P1 with a 1:28.645 as his team-mate Piastri slotted behind in P2 before Mercedes’ Russell moved to the top of the times with a 1:28.570 with six minutes into the session.

Verstappen then climbed to P4 before Ferrari’s Hamilton reclaimed top spot on 1:28.380 as Piastri took P2 and was a slim 0.039 seconds off the Briton.

RB’s Isack Hadjar slotted into P5 as both Aston Martin’s of Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll moved ahead of Verstappen in sixth and seventh in the order.

Verstappen then moved to P3 as Norris took back P1 with a 1:27.991 to be 0.389 seconds clear of Hamilton whilst Piastri put his MCL39 racer into P4 in the order.

Russell put his Silver Arrow at the top on a 1:27.971 to go 0.020 seconds in-front of Norris after the opening ten minutes of proceedings whilst the former’s Mercedes team-mate Andrea Kimi Antonelli shot up to P3.

RB’s Lawson them slotted into P3 before being ousted by Hadjar’s effort, which put him 0.039 seconds off Russell’s effort as Verstappen split the RB’s of Hadjar and Lawson.

Piastri was next putting his McLaren on top with a 1:27.761 whilst Hamilton sandwiched in-between Hadjar and Verstappen in P5.

Russell then with two personal bests and a purple sector two snatched back top spot with a 1:27.702 to go 0.059 seconds ahead of Piastri as his team-mate Antonelli slotted into P6 to go a further 0.463 adrift of his team-mate with 40 minutes remaining.

RB’s Liam Lawson then took P1 off the Briton on a 1:27.676 to go 0.026 clear of Russell as the Kiwi set his effort still on his C3 medium tyre stint.

Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc then moved to the head of the times with a 1:27.565 but this was brief until Hadjar planted his VCARB02 into top spot with a 1:27.502 as the session reached the 22- minute mark.

All the drivers then returned to the pits as a brief lull in action took place as they adjusted their setups and began putting on a set of the C4 red side-walled softer compounds.

Verstappen was the first to post a lap on the softs and returned to P3 with two personal bests in sector two and three to go 0.101 seconds off Hadjar’s benchmark with half-an-hour left in the hour-long session.

Norris was next on his flyer posting two purples in sectors two and three to go fastest with a 1:27.354 and 0.148 seconds clear of Hadjar.

Piastri followed with a personal best opening sector and a purple middle to bump his team-mate to second with a 1:27.278 as Leclerc then snatched P1 on a 1:27.095 to go 0.183 seconds ahead of the former with 25 minutes left on the clock.

Russell then moved to P2 with two personal best and a purple middle to go 0.068 adrift of Leclerc’s effort on the softs.

With 22 minutes left Bortoleto suffered a pirouette after exiting Copse Corner flat-out and spinning across the track and onto the grass on the other side of the circuit and managed to continue.

Piastri then reclaimed top spot with a 1:27.042 before Norris took P1 off his team-mate with a 1:26.915.

Antonelli with three personal bests then moved to fifth and was 0.053 seconds off of Piastri’s benchmark.

Hamilton then went quickest with a 1:26.892 to go 0.023 seconds clear of Norris as replays showed Leclerc abandoned his flyer after running wide out of the final corner.

Williams’ Albon moved to seventh in the classification with a 1:27.304 to be 0.412 seconds off Hamilton’s session-topping time.

Most of the field in the final 15 once again returned to the pits for further setup refinements before re-emerging on sets of mediums and hards for race data gathering runs.

Sainz on his soft tyre effort moved into P14 with his three personal bests and a 1:27.981 and was over a second off Hamilton’s best time.

With the order remaining stable for the final 15 minutes, the session ended with Hamilton fastest, ahead of Norris and Piastri who rounded out the top three.

Leclerc was fourth overall in the other SF-25 and in-front of Russell who took fifth and Hadjar who placed sixth.

Albon followed in seventh and ahead of Lawson who was eighth whilst Antonelli and Verstappen completed the top ten runners.

You can see the full Formula 1 Qatar Airways British Grand Prix 2025 Free Practice 1 Results Classification at the link: FORMULA 1 QATAR AIRWAYS BRITISH GRAND PRIX 2025 – PRACTICE 1

#F1 Qatar Airways #BritishGP 2025 Preview. #Formula1 #BritishGrandPrix