05/07/2024
NEWS STORY
The first day of track action for the British Grand Prix was held in stereotypical English summer weather.
It was on the cool side, the air temperature never getting above 20 °C, the track fluctuating between 20 and 29 ° and considerably lower when it started to rain towards the end of FP2. In fact, the odd shower interspersed with occasional short bursts of sunshine was the order of the day for all three categories on track with Pirelli tyres today.
McLaren made its mark on Formula 1 proceedings, with Lando Norris quickest in both sessions. In FP1, the Englishman stopped the clocks in 1'27"420, while in the second hour he got down to 1'26"549, which is 171 thousandths quicker than last year's pole position time of 1'26"720 set by Max Verstappen. This afternoon, three other drivers also got under the 1'27" barrier: Oscar Piastri (1'26"880), Sergio Perez (1'26"983) and Nico Hulkenberg (1'26"990). No fewer than four young drivers were give a run in FP1, Englishman Oliver Bearman, Australian Jack Doohan, Argentina's Franco Colapinto and France's Isack Hadjar - respectively replacing regular drivers Kevin Magnussen (Haas), Pierre Gasly (Alpine), Logan Sargeant (Williams) and Sergio Perez (Red Bull).
As for tyre use, it was a pretty standard day, with teams working on car set-up and on a comparison of the Medium and Soft tyres over a long run. The Hard saw the most use in the first session: Lance Stroll was the only driver who did not complete a single lap with the C1, but he did use it for his first run in FP2. In the second session, it's worth noting that the Intermediate tyres were called into play by nine drivers, who thus had an initial impression of its handling on a track that was getting progressively wetter towards the end, thus having a little amount of information which could be useful for later in the weekend, as the weather forecast is variable to say the least.
Simone Berra: "The most salient data from today is the significant reduction in lap time compared to a year ago, as can be seen from the fact that Norris' best time is already almost two tenths under Verstappen's 2023 pole time. Unless qualifying takes place on a wet track, it is therefore almost certain that the pole time will be significantly lower than the 1'26"1 predicted from the average of the simulations received from the teams prior to each race. The cooler temperatures compared to last year have definitely had a major influence but it's also true that on such a demanding and challenging track, the real potential of this year's cars comes to the fore more than at any other circuit.
"From an initial analysis of the data from the two hours of free practice, we can say first of all that the performance difference between the compounds is in line with what we saw two weeks ago in Barcelona, namely around half a second between the Hard and the Medium and just over a second between the Medium and the Soft. Compared to last year, it seems the Hard is working better, both over a long run and in terms of pure performance, which puts it in play for the race, rather than the Soft which suffered with a bit of graining today."
Check out our Friday gallery from Silverstone here.