Lando Norris announced in a press conference that, after his accident in Verstappen, despite settling all their differences, wants revenge on the track. And now, The Pilot of McLaren He began dominating the first free practice sessions of Formula 1 British GP 2024although he did it in a time table that is still not very representative and does not say much about what could happen this weekend, and an example of this is that Lance Stroll finished second in Aston Martincompletely out of position as the green car had to suffer again on this track with a complicated Q3 objective in qualifying.
There are many young people behind the wheel
It is also not representative because of the many young drivers on the track: up to four in four different teams. Jack Doohan (21 years old) rolled with him Alpine de Gasly, with Pierre observing everything from the barriers. And the talent of the Ferrari youth academy, Oliver Bearman (19 years old)who has been confirmed as the official Haas driver for 2025, gets into the car of Magnussen. AND Isack Hadjar (19 years old) He drove Pérez’s Red Bull in his free seconds after its debut in Abu Dhabi 2023, something that does not help the Mexican, because what he definitely needs after some recent bad races is to add kilometers to gain confidence and get tenth through the settings with a car where he does not perform as expected and where he is light years behind Max.
The great novelty is the Franco Colapinto (21 years old) at Williams, marking the return of an Argentine to a Grand Prix after 23 years, albeit only for this Free Practice 1 in place of a Sergeant whose days are numbered at Williams. And also the premiere of Isaac Hadjar.
Norris, the fastest but still has a long way to go…
There are many more left and this is just the beginning of one Silverstone where rain could be the star this weekend, starting with Free Practice 2 this afternoon. Maybe that’s why McLaren He wants to further his work in Free Practice 1 and be the only team at the top to mount a soft qualifying tire. This may explain the time differences above. Norris was fastest with 1’27″420, with take a walk (also includes soft) at 0″134 and Piastre in third position at 0″211. Meanwhile, Verstappen, as has been typical in many races this year, once again hid his potential by riding the medium tire with the fourth best time at 0.309.
At Silverstone, expect a battle similar to the last few days in Austria, with McLaren on top, Max Verstappen with his Red Bull and the question remains whether Mercedes can take a step forward in qualifying who fought for pole after showing good race pace in Austria with Russell.
Neither Red Bull, nor Mercedes, nor Ferrari are mounted on soft tires. And in that context, Russell, with the same medium compound as Verstappen, was 5th in the 9th thousand just behind Max, 0.318 of the best time Norris did on the best tires Alonso was in 1st 6 with soft rubber at 0.374 and Lewis Hamilton, in his last home GP wearing Mercedes, restarted behind his teammate George Russell, 0.438 off the best on both medium tires.
For its part, Ferrari, expected to be the 4th best car at Silverstone due to how difficult the car experienced in Barcelona and Austria in the fast corners, started Leclerc 8th with an average tire at 0 “483 and Carlos Sainz in 9th place in the time he set on the hard compound, without being able to improve his time on the medium tire.
Aston Martin, tests and reviews
Aston Martin carries a spoiler adapted to the characteristics of Silverstone to increase the load and improve the air flow at the rear of the car. Therefore, the team used FP1 to make comparisons between the cars, installing this modified wing on one of them. They also took advantage Alonso and take a walk to run a different tire program to compare the performance of the medium and hard tires early in the session before installing the soft tires. Alonso was 6th, 0.374 behind the best time, and Lance Stroll, 2nd, 0.134 behind Norris, but they were not representative of the times because they rode on soft rubber and because of how much everyone’s reserve.
Aston Martin’s fight should be to get into Q3 in a very close middle zone and on a circuit where Alonso has been warning for weeks that he will have to suffer, like in Barcelona and Austria.
Source: La Verdad
I’m Rose Herman and I work as an author for Today Times Live. My expertise lies in writing about sports, a passion of mine that has been with me since childhood. As part of my job, I provide comprehensive coverage on everything from football to tennis to golf.
