F1: Verstappen tops opening practice for British GP

–by Mark Cipolloni–

World Driving Champion Max Verstappen turned a lap of 1m28.600s to top the opening practice session for the Formula 1 British GP at Silverstone.

Verstappen gapped the entire field, that was otherwise fairly closely bunched. Day in and day out, he proves he is the fastest driver in Formula 1 today.

The Dutchman is hunting for his sixth consecutive win this weekend at Silverstone, a feat only achieved by four other drivers in Formula 1 history.

Verstappen’s Red Bull Honda teammate Sergio Perez was 2nd quick, 0.448s behind and just faster than the Williams of Alex Albon who was 0.489s behind the Dutchman.

Fernando Alonso put his Aston Martin 4th on the time charts, 0.668s back and just ahead of the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc, who rounded out the top-5.

The two Mercedes drivers of Lewis Hamilton and George Russell never bolted on a set of softs, so they are sanding bagging down in 12th and 14th.  They complained of lack of grip and bouncing.

Plenty of talk around McLaren at Silverstone with many excited to see what they can do with both cars now featuring the upgrades that served Lando Norris so well in Spielberg.

But there was a lack of running for Oscar Piastri, his car raised on jacks at the end of the session.

The team subsequently said there was a hydraulic leak preventing the Australian from getting as much time on track as possible.

Practice 1 Results