McLaren’s Lando Norris dominated Friday Practice for 2024 British Grand Prix at Silverstone.
Despite not dominating FP1 and FP2 individually, Norris produced the fastest lap times of both sessions in a strong showing from the Brit on the opening day of his home event.
Oscar Piastri completed a confident day for McLaren as he finished in the top three within both sessions on a day where the pecking order didn’t look representative.
FP1
New Haas signing for 2025 season, Oliver Bearman was amongst the first drivers out on track sandwiched in-between his British compatriots, George Russell and Lewis Hamilton.
Russell however pitted which left Bearman to set the benchmark time of 1m 41.245 on hard tyres, which was quickly bettered by several drivers as Yuki Tsunoda, Max Verstappen, Hamilton then Russell went fastest.
Shortly after Russell set 1m 28.888 in the ninth minute, the session was red flagged for eight minutes after RB’s Tsunoda spun out at Luffield and got beached in the gravel trap.
Russell twice further lowered the benchmark time to 1m 28.046 before Hamilton went 0.003 seconds faster in the 26th minute, until Sainz posted 1m 27.925 to go quicker two minutes later.
Verstappen however seized the initiative on medium tyres with 1m 27.764 in the 34th minute to head Russell by 0.010s, but other drivers opted for soft tyre runs and Norris emerged fastest with 1m 27.420 set 11 minutes from the checkered flag.
Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll was second ahead of Norris’ teammate, Oscar Piastri on soft tyres, whilst Verstappen and Russell rounded out the top five on medium tyres.
Fernando Alonso finished sixth on softs in front of Hamilton, Charles Leclerc and Sainz – on hards – who completed the top nine.
Everyone from 10th downwards set their fastest lap on softs except for 19th-placed FP1 driver – Isack Hadjar, whose lap was on medium tyres plus Tsunoda who only drove the hard tyre prior to his session-ending spin.
Out of the four FP1 runners, Hadjar was slowest behind Williams’ Franco Colapinto and Alpine’s Jack Doohan who finished just ahead of him, whilst Bearman was 14th quickest.
| Position | Driver | Team | Time |
| 1 | Lando Norris | McLaren | 1m 27.420 |
| 2 | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin | + 0.134 |
| 3 | Oscar Piastri | McLaren | + 0.211 |
| 4 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | + 0.309 |
| 5 | George Russell | Mercedes | + 0.318 |
| 6 | Fernando Alonso | Aston Martin | + 0.374 |
| 7 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | + 0.438 |
| 8 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | + 0.483 |
| 9 | Carlos Sainz | Ferrari | + 0.505 |
| 10 | Esteban Ocon | Alpine | + 0.554 |
| 11 | Nico Hulkenberg | Haas | + 0.662 |
| 12 | Valtteri Bottas | Sauber | + 0.834 |
| 13 | Daniel Ricciardo | RB | + 1.057 |
| 14 | Oliver Bearman | Haas | + 1.116 |
| 15 | Guanyu Zhou | Sauber | + 1.170 |
| 16 | Alex Albon | Williams | + 1.229 |
| 17 | Jack Doohan | Alpine | + 1.315 |
| 18 | Franco Colapinto | Williams | + 1.658 |
| 19 | Isack Hadjar | Red Bull | + 1.850 |
| 20 | Yuki Tsunoda | RB | + 2.444 |
FP2
Williams’ Logan Sargeant was first out on track after he sat out FP1 for Colapinto and proceeded to set a benchmark 1m 30.415 as the initial benchmark time, as everyone opted for mediums in the opening stint bar Bottas, Stroll and Hulkenberg who instead ran the hard tyre.
Up front, Verstappen set the initial pace with 1m 27.831 in the fifth minute which nobody beat in the following 11 minutes, as the Dutchman was the first driver to attempt a soft tyre Qualifying simulation with 1m 27.233 in the 16th minute.
Russell went 0.273s shy four minutes later on mediums before he switched to the soft tyre whilst Leclerc went fastest in the 27th minute with 1m 27.150, which was beaten by Hulkenberg then Piastri barely a minute later.
Norris secured a McLaren one-two finish for this session as he set a 1m 26.5469 on the half-hour mark to top FP2 from Piastri, whilst Sergio Perez finished third ahead of Hulkenberg as rain began to fall in the closing minutes.
| Position | Driver | Team | Time |
| 1 | Lando Norris | McLaren | 1m 26.549 |
| 2 | Oscar Piastri | McLaren | + 0.331 |
| 3 | Sergio Perez | Red Bull | + 0.434 |
| 4 | Nico Hulkenberg | Haas | + 0.441 |
| 5 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | + 0.601 |
| 6 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | + 0.653 |
| 7 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | + 0.684 |
| 8 | Carlos Sainz | Ferrari | + 0.700 |
| 9 | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin | + 0.725 |
| 10 | George Russell | Mercedes | + 0.745 |
| 11 | Fernando Alonso | Aston Martin | + 0.823 |
| 12 | Valtteri Bottas | Sauber | + 0.832 |
| 13 | Alex Albon | Williams | + 1.096 |
| 14 | Pierre Gasly | Alpine | + 1.183 |
| 15 | Esteban Ocon | Alpine | + 1.194 |
| 16 | Yuki Tsunoda | RB | + 1.196 |
| 17 | Logan Sargeant | Williams | + 1.260 |
| 18 | Guanyu Zhou | Sauber | + 1.264 |
| 19 | Daniel Ricciardo | RB | + 1.367 |
| 20 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas | + 1.573 |
Leave a Reply