Formula 1 returns to Silverstone for the British GP. Free practice at this weekend’s British GP is an important one for a number of teams, as several have brough new parts that are needing assessed. Alpha Tauri and Afla Romeo have brought several new upgrades in an effort to drag themselves away from the rear of the grid. McLaren has added a couple of additions to an already impressive upgrades from last weekends Austrian GP
Free Practice One
The majority of Free Practice had Redbull near the top, with Ferrari moving to the front two steps during their soft tire runs.
The early running didn’t have any real drama, with Alpha Tauri’s Nyck De Vries having a spin into the gravel, he was able to re-join the session, Nyck will hope that he can avoid any more trips into the kitty litter and have a solid weekend.
The start of the session was punctuated with drivers complaining of lack of grip, interestingly Max Verstappen would complain of this very issue before sticking a lap in that was almost a second faster than second place!!
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With the final ten minutes to go, Max Verstappen fired on the soft tires and popped in a 1:28.836 going back to the top of the time sheets.
McLaren having a great run with the almost B spec car sitting in eighth and ninth which will be encouraging to the Papaya squad.
The HAAS drivers, Hulkenberg and Magnussen ended the session nineteenth and twentieth, however this was more to do with the HAAS plan rather than being un-competitive.
Free Practice 2
The second free practice session continued in a similar way as the previous session, with new parts and copious amount of flow-vis paint!!!
An electrical issue for Charles Leclerc ended the Ferrari drivers session before it began, however his teammate was at the sharp end of the timing screens only 0.022 seconds behind the Redbull of Verstappen.
The Williams pair were on it throughout the session, with Albon sitting third and Logan Sargent in fifth. Nico Hulkenberg who was way down the order in FP1 found himself up in seventh place and looking far more competitive, however HAAS’s FP1 was used more for long run work to focus on the tire degradation issues.
Unfortunately, Lando Norris was further down the order throughout the session, finishing the session in a lowly fourteenth, his teammate Piastri was able to manage ninth.
Mercedes Woes
Mercedes struggled throughout FP2 with both drivers complaining of a lack of grip, this was a complaint that has migrated from FP1. The lack of grip put the Mercedes drivers down in fifteenth and twelfth respectively. Although Mercedes are struggling today, they are a difficult team to right off and should have their issues sorted ready for FP3 and qualifying tomorrow.
Late Drama
As the session ran down, Alpha Tauri’s Nyck De Vries had a scary moment when the front right tire decided to let go at high speed. De Vries took to the outskirts of the track and was unable to get his car back to the pits and pulled off to the side of the track.
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