Hamilton tops Antonelli in British GP practice

Lewis Hamilton topped the sole practice session at the British Grand Prix ahead of Sprint qualifying later today.

Most of the hour-long session was spent on the hard tire, but almost every driver bolted on a set of softs in the final 15 minutes expecting to gain around a second on the more durable compound. Hamilton, who had been fastest on the hards, had no trouble rocketing to top spot with his first attempt on softs, setting the benchmark at 1m29.260s. The time moved him ahead of championship leader Kimi Antonelli by 0.213s despite the Italian teenager setting purple times in the first two sectors.

Hamilton, however, was superb in the final split, finding 0.264s relative to Antonelli in the last sector alone, neutralizing the Mercedes driver’s better start to the lap.

The table-topping drivers both enjoyed handy margins over their teammates. Charles Leclerc was third, but was a whopping 0.599s off the session-leading Ferrari, more than half of which came from the first sector. George Russell, winner of last weekend’s Austrian Grand Prix, was fourth but 0.678s off the pace and 0.465s behind his title-leading Mercedes teammate.

While Mercedes and Ferrari controlled the leaderboard, Oscar Piastri led a close race for best of the rest in fifth. The Australian, in this weekend’s special-liveried white-and-green McLaren, was 0.887s off the pace. He also appeared to be struggling with tire wear, spinning off the road at Becketts and complaining that his “tires are dead” after 14 completed laps on the hard compound.

Max Verstappen slotted into sixth, 0.093s behind him, while reigning Silverstone winner Lando Norris was seventh fastest and a further 0.048s adrift in his McLaren. Isack Hadjar completed the top eight in the second Red Bull Racing car, the Frenchman, another 0.05s off the pace.

Audi’s Nico Hulkenberg was the fastest midfielder, ending the session ninth and 1.483s off the pace, which put him 0.405s adrift of the leading pack.

The German, who took the only podium of his career in Silverstone last year, attracted the ire of the stewards for balking Liam Lawson, who was on a fast lap, immediately after exiting the pits, but he escaped without penalty. Lawson, immensely frustrated by the incident, was 0.107s further back, but neither he nor the Audi driver used a set of soft tires, choosing instead to preserve them for later in the weekend.

The same applied for Franco Colapinto, Gabriel Bortoleto and Arvid Lindblad from 11th to 13th, who all used mediums for their fastest laps. British rookie Lindblad was the first driver more than 2s off the pace.

Oliver Bearman headed Carlos Sainz, Esteban Ocon and Alex Albon down to 16th, all on softs.

Cadillac teammates Valtteri Bottas and Sergio Perez – their cars painted in the colors of the American flag in anticipation of Independence Day on Saturday – ended the session in 18th and 19th, both on mediums for their fastest laps.

Fernando Alonso was 3.6s off the pace – and more than 0.7s slower than the Cadillac pair – in 20th, also on mediums, ahead of Pierre Gasly, who didn’t get a representative lap in on anything other than the hard tire.

“The car is very unpredictable,” said the Alpine driver. “I’m not liking this.”

Lance Stroll completed the order in 22nd.

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