Max fastest after FP1 in England

Published on 07 July 2023 by Florence Cobben

Max Verstappen has set the fastest time in the first free practice of the British Grand Prix. The championship leader drove nearly half a second faster than his Oracle Red Bull Racing teammate Sergio Perez, with a time of 1:28.600. On the 5.891 meters long Silverstone circuit, Alex Albon in his Williams clinched P3. Fernando Alonso in the Aston Martin and Charles Leclerc in the Ferrari rounded out the top five.

For the British Grand Prix, Formula One returned to the regular format. This Friday saw a wholescale return to the twin free practice structure fans know and love, providing the teams with more preparation time for qualifying. Many teams view this Grand Prix as their time to introduce crucial updates to the car. Especially Red Bull’s sister team, AlphaTauri, brought big updates for the AT04. 

The temperature at the start of FP1 is 23 degrees and rising. The sky is clear with little to no chance of rain during the session. The track temperature approaches 40 degrees.

As the lights at the end of the pit lane go green, Alex Albon in the Williams is the first to appear on the track. In a few minutes, the whole driver's lineup, excluding Valtteri Bottas, has gone onto the track. Max too has appeared on the track and sets a lap on hard tyres. His first fast lap already puts him at the top of the time sheets, with an advantage of a second-and-a-half on Pierre Gasly. “There is zero grip. It’s getting worse and worse”, the world champion complains via radio.

Both Red Bulls have hit the track this weekend with a brand-new power unit. The same is true for George Russell, Nico Hülkenberg and Nyck De Vries. The latter causes a yellow flag to be waved by spinning through corner seven. The Dutchman luckily manages to force his AlphaTauri out of the gravel and is able to continue on his way.

Despite his advantage over P2 of almost a second, Max again complains about grip: “It’s just like driving on ice.” Lewis Hamilton and Esteban Ocon complain over their radios about having similar issues.

Halfway through the session, Max reappears on the track, again on hard tyres. Teammate Perez has in the meantime come second, half a tenth behind Max, while Logan Sargeant on softs drove his Williams into P3.

Many drivers start to switch to softs, including De Vries. With twenty minutes left on the clock, the Dutchman climbs to P4. In the meantime, Max is in the pits and falls to P6. Max has of course not yet switched to soft tyres.

Once Max does get softs and is back onto the track, the speedy Dutchman sets a green, a purple and another green sector in his Red Bull, placing him back on P1. With that performance, he gets an advantage of four-tenths on Leclerc in the Ferrari in P2. A little later Alonso claims P2, who then has to make way for Albon, who in turn has to make way for Perez. Perez is ultimately the winner in the battle for P2.

In the closing phase of FP1, Max refines his time once more and increases the gap between him and Perez to four-tenths. With that, the first session is over.

Contest GP Silverstone: win a by Max Verstappen signed Orange Lion Driver Cap!

Results first free practice Great Britain: