Formula 1 News: Norris tops opening practice for 2024 British GP

McLaren’s Lando Norris, on soft Pirelli tires, turned a lap of 1m27.420s to top opening practice for the 2024 British GP at Silverstone.

–by Mark Cipolloni–

The top-3 drivers used the soft rubber, with Lance Stroll 2nd quickest for Aston Martin, 0.134s behind Norris.

Norris’ teammate Oscar Piastri was third quick on the soft tires, 0.211s behind Norris.

The fastest driver on the medium tires was the Red Bull of Max Verstappen, 0.309s behind Norris.  Verstappen focussed on race setup and long runs so we have not yet seen the true pace of the Dutchman.

Red Bull Advisor Dr. Helmut Marko after FP1, “The long run was very strong and there is still a lot of fine-tuning to be done in qualifying. We don’t know yet exactly how much difference the soft tire will make.”

“We now have to see how the soft tire works. But the important thing for us was the long run, and we were able to pull away from Mercedes a little more there.”

Winner last time out in Austria, George Russell, rounded out the top-5 for Mercedes, 0.318s behind Norris. Like Verstappen, Russell was also on the medium tire.

Late in the session Norris had a big scare. The replays showed Lando Norris very nearly having an off after barreling up behind the slow-moving Red Bull driven by Isack Hadjar in for Sergio Perez.

Hadjar was quick to apologize as he raised his hand to the Brit. “Sorry man. I couldn’t see him,” the F2 racer said over the radio.

The stewards will be investigating that moment between Norris and Hadjar at the end of the session. And they will also be investigating the earlier Leclerc/Stroll impeding incident as well.

2024 British GP Practice 1 Results