Hamilton leads the Ferrari-Mercedes duel in Free Practice at Silverstone

The English driver Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari) was the fastest in the first and only free practice session of the British Grand Prix, ninth round of the Formula 1 World Championship at the Silverstone circuit, ahead of the Italian Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes) and the Monegasque Charles Leclerc (Ferrari), while Carlos Sainz (Williams) was sixteenth and Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin), second to last.

The seven-time champion showed that he is the ‘king’ of Silverstone and surprised everyone with an outstanding lap in the only free practice session of the weekend, clocking a 1:29.260, two tenths better than Antonelli (1:29.473), in what is a serious warning to Mercedes, which was seen for much of the hour of testing far superior to the rest.

And the time of the Englishman George Russell is worrying in the German team, since he was just over four tenths behind his teammate, although the local driver could be playing catch-up, as was already seen in Austria. Leclerc and his 1:29.859 closed the ‘podium’ of the first session, with the McLaren and the Red Bull unable to keep up with the pace of Ferrari and Mercedes.

The grid started the session with hard tires, and the Red Bulls were the first to command the time table, first it was the Frenchman Isack Hadjar and then the Dutchman Max Verstappen, in a low 1:31. But the times improved as the cars rolled on the classic asphalt of Silverstone and, before the halfway point of this first and only free practice session, Antonelli did a 1:30.777 to improve by almost two tenths on the former Racing Bulls driver.

With a time almost identical to that of Hadjar, the Englishman George Russell also remained close to the Italian, just over two tenths away, to close the ‘top 3’ of the first 30 minutes of testing on the English track. Already somewhat further behind, Lewis Hamilton and Lando Norris appeared, while Oscar Piastri, who even suffered an off-track, and Charles Leclerc seemed to have more problems adapting to the British track.

The local Hamilton, still on hard tires, was able to lower his best lap and place himself at the top with a 1:30.521, with the New Zealander Liam Lawson (Racing Bulls) also among the fastest. Although the panorama changed with the appearance of the first red tires.

Then, the Mercedes, who were the owners of the first two sectors, gained muscle and took the lead without excessive problems. And it was Antonelli who beat his teammate, with a 1:29.473, almost half a second better than Russell. Behind, a gap of more than five tenths between the Italian’s time and that of Leclerc, who, however, was better in the third sector.

But it was not going to be a walk for the star, who saw minutes later how Hamilton put two tenths ahead of Antonelli with a great lap in 1:29.260, demonstrating that Silverstone is the promised land for him and that he knows the route inside out.

Thus, the only test session of the GP left a battle between Ferrari and Mercedes that, for the moment, takes the ‘Prancing Horse’, with McLaren and Red Bull far away. In fact, Piastri finished fifth; Verstappen, sixth; Norris, seventh; and Hadjar, eighth; with Nico Hülkenberg (Audi) and Lawson closing out the top 10.

Regarding the Spanish, Carlos Sainz could only be sixteenth, 2.4 seconds behind the leader, with soft tires, so there was not a very notable improvement with the new wing. And Fernando Alonso had to settle for the 20th best time, with medium tires, more than 3.6 seconds behind Antonelli.