British Grand Prix: Max Verstappen leads Red Bull teammate in FP1

World champion Max Verstappen topped the timesheets at Silverstone on Friday morning.

The double world champion, a winner at seven of the opening nine rounds of a one-sided campaign, finished nearly half-a-second clear of Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez.

Lewis Hamilton managed only 12th in front of his home supporters, two places ahead of fellow Briton George Russell in the other Mercedes.

Alex Albon was an impressive third for Williams with Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso fourth. Charles Leclerc finished fifth for Ferrari.

Verstappen has already established a commanding 81-point lead in his pursuit of a hat-trick of world championships.

The Dutch driver cruised to the chequered flag a week ago at Red Bull's home race in Austria, and he will head into the remainder of the weekend as the driver to beat following an emphatic start at a sun-cooked Silverstone.

Verstappen pulled on the speediest soft tyres with a dozen minutes to go and crossed the line 0.448 seconds ahead of Perez in the other Red Bull.

Hamilton has won seven of the last 10 races staged at Silverstone, but the seven-time world champion will have to upset the odds to add to his tally on Sunday.

The 38-year-old finished a distant 1.1 sec adrift of Verstappen and was on the radio complaining about the bouncing in his upgraded Mercedes machine.

Russell was also on the intercom to bemoan his unruly Mercedes, ending the one-hour running a tenth back from Hamilton.

However, neither Hamilton nor Russell posted a lap on the fastest soft compound.

Nyck de Vries is under pressure to keep his seat with AlphaTauri and the rookie Dutchman was the only driver to fall off the road in practice.

De Vries spun into the gravel at Turn 7 but was able to keep his car going through the sand trap before returning to his garage.

Despite the threat of action from Just Stop Oil protesters, the first running passed off without incident.

However, F1 bosses, Silverstone and Northamptonshire Police remain on high alert that a protest could yet disrupt the three days of running, with 480,000 people anticipated to pass through the gates this weekend.

1 Max Verstappen NED Oracle Red Bull Racing 1m28.600s
2 Sergio Perez MEX Oracle Bull Racing 1m29.048s
3 Alex Albon THA Williams Racing 1m29.089s
4 Fernando Alonso ESP Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant 1m29.268s
5 Charles Leclerc MON Scuderia Ferrari 1m29.280s
6 Esteban Ocon FRA BWT Alpine F1 Team 1m29.319s
7 Carlos Sainz ESP Scuderia Ferrari 1m29.357s
8 Lando Norris GBR McLaren F1 Team 1m29.441s
9 Lance Stroll CAN Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant F1 Team 1m29.471s
10 Oscar Piastri AUS McLaren F1 Team 1m29.658s
11 Nyck de Vries NED Scuderia AlphaTauri 1m29.691s
12 Lewis Hamilton GBR Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team 1m29.768s
13 Pierre Gasly FRA BWT Alpine F1 Team 1m29.828s
14 George Russell GBR Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team 1m29.874s
15 Valtteri Bottas FIN Alfa Romeo F1 Team Stake 1m30.090s
16 Yuki Tsunoda JPN Scuderia AlphaTauri 1m30.092s
17 Logan Sargeant USA Williams Racing 1m30.124s
18 Zhou Guanyu CHN Alfa Romeo F1 Team Stake 1m30.321s
19 Kevin Magnussen DEN MoneyGram Haas F1 Team 1m30.385s
20 Nico Hulkenberg GER MoneyGram Haas F1 Team 1m30.591s

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