Lewis Hamilton and Kimi Antonelli Exchange Jabs on the Track to Kick Off the Silverstone Weekend

The only free practice session of the Formula 1 British Grand Prix (the weekend’s format calls for a Sprint Qualifying session instead of FP2) saw Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari come out on top, but it by no means rules out World Championship leader Kimi Antonelli, who was the only other driver to post an equally competitive time on the track.

The home driver, behind the wheel of the SF-26, set a best time of 1:29.260, beating the Mercedes driver from Bologna by 213 thousandths of a second. The others are further back: Charles Leclerc is third in the other Ferrari but more than half a second behind his teammate, while George Russell is fourth with a gap of nearly seven-tenths.

Within a second of Hamilton are also Oscar Piastri’s McLaren and Max Verstappen’s Red Bull, in fifth and sixth place respectively, while rounding out the Top 10 are Lando Norris’s other McLaren, the second Red Bull driven by Isack Hadjar, Nico Hülkenberg’s Audi, and Liam Lawson’s Racing Bulls.

The weekend schedule includes Sprint qualifying starting at 5:30 p.m. on Friday; the Sprint race will take place on Saturday at 1:00 p.m. Italian time, four hours before qualifying for the main race. The main Grand Prix will take place on Sunday, July 5, with the lights going out at 4:00 p.m. Italian time.