Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz topped Friday Practice for 2022 British Grand Prix at Silverstone, which saw contrasting weather conditions across both sessions.
Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas topped a damp FP1 which saw limited running but conditions improved ahead of FP2, which led to a frantic hour of running as teams looked to get their dry-weather programmes completed.
Sainz ultimately emerged fastest in the dry conditions ahead of home favourites – Lewis Hamilton and Lando Norris.
Now, here is a full roundup of FP1 and FP2 in contrastable weather conditions.
FP1
Following the arrival of rain showers during FP2 practice earlier in the day, all ten F1 teams were greeted with damp conditions as Mercedes’ Hamilton and George Russell were first out on track with several drivers favouring intermediate tyres in this session.
Neither drivers set a competitive lap time as did Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz as the trio all pitted after their outlaps, whilst Charles Leclerc went fastest with 1m 43.801 on his second flier before he then pitted.
Sainz however went fastest in the 20th minute with 1m 42.967 to head Bottas and Leclerc at the half-hour mark of the session, with only nine drivers having set a lap time before the rain returned for another intense shower.
Once the showers had again passed, Hamilton was first out on track on intermediates with 12 minutes left of the session, followed by a few other drivers yet it was Bottas who went fastest with 1m 42.249 in the 56th minute.
13 drivers including Bottas and Hamilton eventually finished the session on soft tyres with only Hamilton setting his fastest overall time on the slick tyre, which put the Brit second behind Bottas but ahead of Sainz, Leclerc and Mick Schumacher.
Guanyu Zhou, Kevin Magnussen, Lance Stroll, Yuki Tsunoda and Sebastian Vettel rounded out the top ten as only 10 drivers set lap times, owing to a last minute red flag caused by a spin for Stroll at Copse which caused a red flag.
| Position | Driver | Team | Time |
| 1 | Valtteri Bottas | Alfa Romeo | 1m 42.249 |
| 2 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | + 0.532 |
| 3 | Carlos Sainz | Ferrari | + 0.718 |
| 4 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | + 1.552 |
| 5 | Mick Schumacher | Haas | + 1.646 |
| 6 | Guanyu Zhou | Alfa Romeo | + 3.922 |
| 7 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas | + 5.912 |
| 8 | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin | + 8.994 |
| 9 | Yuki Tsunoda | AlphaTauri | + 9.124 |
| 10 | Sebastian Vettel | Aston Martin | + 16.919 |
| 11 | George Russell | Mercedes | No Time |
| 12 | Sergio Perez | Red Bull | No Time |
| 13 | Esteban Ocon | Alpine | No Time |
| 14 | Fernando Alonso | Alpine | No Time |
| 15 | Alex Albon | Williams | No Time |
| 16 | Daniel Ricciardo | McLaren | No Time |
| 17 | Pierre Gasly | AlphaTauri | No Time |
| 18 | Lando Norris | McLaren | No Time |
| 19 | Nicholas Latifi | Williams | No Time |
| 20 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | No Time |
FP2
Sainz led the field out onto a dried out track but Alpine’s Esteban Ocon set the initial pace on soft tyres with 1m 33.081 but he was swiftly displaced by Fernando Alonso, Max Verstappen, Sainz then Leclerc, as the Monegasque went fastest on his first flier with 1m 30.786 on medium tyres.
In the ninth minute, Sainz went fastest with 1m 29.962 but was displaced two minutes later by Leclerc who went 0.323 seconds, with Verstappen and Sergio Perez sat third and fourth for Red Bull respectively.
Leclerc found further time in the 17th minute to lower his benchmark to 1m 29.462 ahead of Sainz and Verstappen upon conclusion of the opening runs.
Attention soon switched to the soft tyre runs as Lando Norris went top in the 29th minute with 1m 29.118 but Sainz went top two minutes later by 0.104s, whilst Leclerc abandoned his first soft-tyre Qualifying simulation.
Up front, Sainz improved to 1m 28.942 in the 37th minute to top the session from Hamilton, Norris, Verstappen, Leclerc, Alonso, Perez, Russell, Daniel Ricciardo and Stroll.
| Position | Driver | Team | Time |
| 1 | Carlos Sainz | Ferrari | 1m 28.942 |
| 2 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | + 0.163 |
| 3 | Lando Norris | McLaren | + 0.176 |
| 4 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | + 0.207 |
| 5 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | + 0.462 |
| 6 | Fernando Alonso | Alpine | + 0.753 |
| 7 | Sergio Perez | Red Bull | + 0.811 |
| 8 | George Russell | Mercedes | + 0.857 |
| 9 | Daniel Ricciardo | McLaren | + 0.960 |
| 10 | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin | + 1.000 |
| 11 | Valtteri Bottas | Alfa Romeo | + 1.058 |
| 12 | Sebastian Vettel | Aston Martin | + 1.115 |
| 13 | Esteban Ocon | Alpine | + 1.296 |
| 14 | Alex Albon | Williams | + 1.321 |
| 15 | Guanyu Zhou | Alfa Romeo | + 1.329 |
| 16 | Yuki Tsunoda | AlphaTauri | + 1.396 |
| 17 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas | + 1.538 |
| 18 | Pierre Gasly | AlphaTauri | + 1.568 |
| 19 | Mick Schumacher | Haas | + 1.667 |
| 20 | Nicholas Latifi | Williams | + 2.384 |
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