British GP: Verstappen quickest, Vettel hits trouble in FP1

Verstappen was able to finish almost half a second clear of home favourite Lewis Hamilton to lead FP1 for Red Bull during a hot opening session at Silverstone as track temperatures rose beyond 45ºC.

Verstappen set a fastest lap time of 1m27.422s on the soft compound tyre to finish 0.474 seconds clear of Hamilton, who set his best lap on mediums in the leading Mercedes.

Racing Point managed to continue its recent impressive form as Lance Stroll ended the session third, eight tenths of a second clear of Hulkenberg.

After being drafted in as Sergio Perez's replacement, Hulkenberg only entered the paddock less than 10 minutes before the start of practice after getting receiving his negative COVID-19 test result required to take part in the session.

Hulkenberg managed to get out on track in the RP20 car within 15 minutes of the session beginning, and finished ninth overall.

The German driver encountered no major issues bar some discomfort with his seat that prompted him to request a breather at one stage, completing 22 laps in total.

Alexander Albon finished the session fourth for Red Bull, trailing team-mate Verstappen by seven tenths of a second, while Charles Leclerc took fifth for Ferrari.

Leclerc was Ferrari's sole runner for most of the session after teammate Sebastian Vettel was only able to complete two laps due to an issue with the intercooler on his SF1000 car.

Ferrari said it would be stripping down Vettel's car in a bid to fix the problem and rectify it ahead of second practice later today.

Valtteri Bottas ended the session sixth for Mercedes, a second back from Verstappen after recording his best time on the hard compound tyre.

Renault drivers Esteban Ocon and Daniel Ricciardo finished seventh and eighth overall ahead of Hulkenberg, while Daniil Kvyat closed out the top 10 for AlphaTauri, narrowly beating teammate Pierre Gasly.

Lando Norris and Carlos Sainz ended the session 12th and 13th for McLaren ahead of the Haas pair of Kevin Magnussen and Romain Grosjean, while Kimi Raikkonen was the leading Alfa Romeo driver in 16th.

George Russell finished first practice for his home grand prix in 17th for Williams despite reporting that his car felt "proper wobbly" at one stage through the high-speed Maggots and Becketts complex. Teammate Nicholas Latifi wound up 19th fastest, seventenths of a second back from Russell.

Alfa Romeo driver Antonio Giovinazzi brought out a red flag less than 30 minutes into the session following a spin at the exit of Becketts, causing him to flat-spot all four tyres and damage the floor of his car.

The incident left small bits of debris on the Hangar Straight, prompting race control to suspend the session to allow the track to be cleared.

Giovinazzi has been summoned to see the stewards about the incident over a possible rule breach for driving dangerously or unnecessarily slowly. The Italian finished the session 18th overall, ahead only of Latifi and Vettel.

Cla	Driver		Chassis	Laps	Time	Gap
1	Max Verstappen		Red Bull	27	1'27.422
2	Lewis Hamilton		Mercedes	27	1'27.896	0.474
3	Lance Stroll		Racing Point	22	1'28.004	0.582
4	Alex Albon		Red Bull	24	1'28.129	0.707
5	Charles Leclerc		Ferrari	22	1'28.221	0.799
6	Valtteri Bottas		Mercedes	29	1'28.519	1.097
7	Esteban Ocon		Renault	26	1'28.559	1.137
8	Daniel Ricciardo		Renault	22	1'28.575	1.153
9	Nico Hulkenberg		Racing Point	23	1'28.592	1.170
10	Daniil Kvyat		AlphaTauri	21	1'28.868	1.446
11	Pierre Gasly		AlphaTauri	24	1'28.909	1.487
12	Carlos Sainz Jr.		McLaren	24	1'28.988	1.566
13	Lando Norris		McLaren	22	1'28.990	1.568
14	Kevin Magnussen		Haas	23	1'29.532	2.110
15	Romain Grosjean		Haas	25	1'29.576	2.154
16	Kimi Raikkonen		Alfa Romeo	24	1'29.746	2.324
17	George Russell		Williams	23	1'29.899	2.477
18	Antonio Giovinazzi		Alfa Romeo	17	1'29.925	2.503
19	Nicholas Latifi		Williams	20	1'30.703	3.281
20	Sebastian Vettel		Ferrari	2
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