The checkered flag has waved to close the first free practice session (FP1) of the 2025 British Grand Prix. Let’s take a detailed look at what happened during this opening 60-minute session and review the final classification. This initial taste of the Silverstone track provided teams and drivers with essential track time, while also featuring some changes behind the wheel and Formula 1 debuts. Among them was the promising talent Arvin Lindblad, who took over from Yuki Tsunoda in FP1, driving the Red Bull RB21. Now, through our detailed summary, we analyze everything that unfolded during FP1 at the British Grand Prix, along with the complete timing sheet.
Right from the start, all drivers headed out on track to tackle the first 60 minutes of the weekend. For Scuderia Ferrari, following an encouraging performance in Austria, the British round brings further testing opportunities for the SF-25. On Charles Leclerc’s car, multiple aerodynamic tests were underway, including the use of pitot tubes and flow visualization techniques to monitor and analyze airflow behavior in detail.
The session began with drivers running on the yellow hard tyres, completing numerous laps as they worked on fine-tuning their car setups. As expected, McLaren demonstrated immediate pace, with Oscar Piastri setting the early pace by beating George Russell in the Mercedes by two tenths of a second. Meanwhile, the Alpine A525, driven notably by Pierre Gasly, struggled to find form, showing signs of nervous handling and unpredictability, which resulted in several mistakes.
In the first 20 minutes, the Racing Bulls team delivered a surprise performance with Isack Hadjar setting the fastest time. He was closely followed by Charles Leclerc, who immediately appeared comfortable in his Ferrari SF-25, just a few thousandths of a second behind Isack Hadjar.
Second half of FP1 British GP
Max Verstappen was the first driver to venture out on the red soft tyres, eager to evaluate the car’s balance with the softer compound. However, his initial flying lap on fresh tyres was not successful, as he finished just one-tenth of a second slower than Isack Hadjar’s best time. Lando Norris, also running on the red soft tyres, failed to impress by improving the benchmark by only 148 thousandths. Surprisingly, Charles Leclerc went on to top the timesheets, beating all rivals by two tenths of a second. The only driver who came close after his first attempt on the C4 tyre was George Russell, finishing just 70 thousandths behind.
As the drivers pushed to find the limit on the red tyres, several errors occurred exiting Copse Corner. Among them was Gabriel Bortoleto, who clipped the outside kerb and spun 360 degrees. Charles Leclerc’s stint at the top of the leaderboard was short-lived, as the lead was soon taken over by McLaren before being snatched by Lewis Hamilton, who set a fast lap time of 1:26.892. This time was especially notable considering the numerous thermal degradation cycles his C4 compound tyre had already undergone.
In the final 10 minutes of the session, many drivers focused on simulating race pace. Several drivers returned to the track on the yellow hard tyres to assess and manage tyre degradation. This extensive work allowed all teams to perform valuable comparative tests. Ferrari, for example, ran Charles Leclerc on the red soft tyre and Lewis Hamilton on the yellow hard tyre to gather data on both compounds.
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