McLaren split by Stroll in FP1 at Silverstone

In front of McLaren’s home fans, Lando Norris put on a promising display during the opening hour of practice at the British Grand Prix, with Oscar Piastri accompanying the #4 in the top three alongside surprise entry Lance Stroll.

Piastri’s session ended in an unfortunate fashion, with the Australian being wheeled back to his garage after a hydraulic issue caused him to conch out in the pit entry.

Prior to that late moment, however, the Australian’s opening outing at his team’s home Grand Prix was a positive one.

The #81 set an opening time of 1:30.103s, positioning Piastri with the fourth-fastest lap on the hard compound tyre.

His second attempt moved him up one position before a short stay in the pits was in order.

With 20 minutes left in the session, Piastri set off on his first soft tyre run.

It was a benchmark lap, promoting the #81 into the top spot with a time of 1:27.631s.

Ultimately, his teammate was his demise, with Lando Norris demoting the Australian alongside Lance Stroll.

From there, Piastri’s session was over, as were his competitors’ chances of a late tyre change with the MCL38 blocking the pit entry while awaiting assistance.

Daniel Ricciardo was unaffected by the pit lane entry being closed, running his session without much noise. 

The RB driver had the sole focus of his garage after Yuki Tsunoda spun out of the session after just 10 minutes of running.

He punched in an opening time of 1:31.718s, however, it was his second lap that promoted Ricciardo into the top three.

Unable to match that pace, the Australian slipped down the order into P13, only finding enough pace for P12 on his used hard tyres. 

The soft tyre told the exact same story for Ricciardo, with the #3 bouncing back to P12 with a time of 1:28.539s.

That lap wasn’t representative of the true pace Ricciardo had in hand, with the RB driver’s fast reflexes saving him from a run-in with traffic in the form of Franco Colapinto on the Hangar Straight.

Ricciardo ended his session in P13, over a second off the pace. 

Daniel Ricciardo driving the VCARB 01 during practice at the British Grand Prix. Image: Getty Images/Getty Images // Getty Images / Red Bull Content Pool.

Despite there being a third Australian in the session, Jack Doohan wasn’t able to drag much attention away from Piastri and Ricciardo after spending the bulk of FP1 in the Alpine garage.

Doohan, taking over the reins from Pierre Gasly, started FP1 with a time of 1:33.239s.

That remained the only time to his name for a significant portion of the first half, seeing Doohan falling to P14 but remaining the highest running rookie of the session.

In the garage, Alpine detected an issue in the left rear of Doohan’s A524, leaving him as helpless as he was during FP1 in Canada.

He was able to rejoin the session with 20 minutes on the clock and a thick coating of flow vis on his rear wing, having his lap immediately impeded by two cars before settling in seven-tenths behind Esteban Ocon.

Doohan ended the session in P17, 1.3 seconds off the lead time.

Pleasing the British crowd, George Russell and Lewis Hamilton opened their home Grand Prix campaign at the top of the order.

The Mercedes duo interchanged the lead position as Hamilton kickstarted his weekend at Silverstone with a benchmark of 1:28.888s.

The order soon settled down, with Russell demoting his teammate by just over a tenth before an early session interruption struck the stopwatch.

Yuki Tsunoda lost the rear of his RB through Luffield, spinning into the gravel trap and finding himself beached just ten minutes into the session.

FP1 was momentarily red-flagged, allowing marshals to clear the stricken VCARB 01 while Tsunoda was forced to sit out the remainder of the session.

That was a shame for Tsunoda who, despite only having 10 minutes on track, found himself teetering on the top three times.

Yuki Tsunoda crashes through the gravel during FP1 at the British GP. Image: Sam Bagnall / LAT Images.

Max Verstappen and Piastri were also balancing within the top five, picking up from where they left off after the session resumed.

The majority of drivers remained on the hard tyre, with a small handful continuing on the medium tyres, however, Ollie Bearman didn’t quite follow suit.

The now-confirmed future Haas driver was the first to set a time on the soft tyre, turning the timing sheets purple in Sector 1 to secure the fifth fastest time. 

This weekend, Haas has brought seven upgrades to Silverstone including new floor fences, sidepods, engine cover, rear corners and more, all of which Bearman put to work across the 60-minute session.

He remained the only C3 runner in the opening half of the session.

As the clock struck 30 minutes, Carlos Sainz made his presence known by jumping to the top of the timing sheet by over a tenth.

He stole the fastest opening sector from Bearman to set a new benchmark of 1:27.925s.

The Spaniard did so on his used hard tyres, squeezing the last ounce of pace out of the C1 before the field began their soft tyre runs.

On the soft tyre, McLaren was the clear front runner despite ending the session separated by a surprise entry to the top three, Stroll.

After the #81 solidified his place at the top of the order, Norris was quick to demote him with a revised time to beat of 1:27.420s.

Having dealt with a brake-by-wire (BBW) issue in the opening minutes of FP1, Stroll punched in a time that was just over a tenth back on the #4, splitting the papaya team by the chequered flag.

The likes of Mercedes and Ferrari dropped off towards the end of the session, with the order reflecting the teams’ choices not to run the soft tyre in FP1. 

It wasn’t a completely straightforward ending to the first session for Norris, however, with the home racer having his reflexes tested through the high-speed Turn 2 after encountering a slow-moving rookie in the Red Bull. 

Norris locked up, almost rear-ending Isack Hadjar who was very apologetic over the radio and in the cockpit, waving a hand of accountability at Norris on his way past. 

That was the most action Hadjar’s session contained, with the Red Bull junior completing a haul of tests for the lead team that didn’t reflect on the timing sheets in P19.

It was a similar story for Franco Colapinto, however, in a Williams, the Argentine was never expected to shine on the scoreboard. 

Colapinto ended his session three-tenths behind Doohan, with his, Hadjar and Bearman’s focus instantly shifting to F2 qualifying. 

As for the rest of the drivers, after completing their practice starts on the grid, they returned to their garages waiting for the second practice session of the day to arrive.

FP2 will kick off at 1:00 AM, with all 20 full-time drivers returning to their 2024 challengers. 

Image: Glenn Dunbar / LAT Images

Free Practice 2 Results:

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