McLaren’s double-top in practice disguises clear threat from Red Bull and Mercedes

Filing through the entry gates by their thousands, the only thing the fans who flocked to Silverstone on Friday knew for certain they would be getting from the first day of practice was wet.

Beyond that, the question of whether Red Bull, McLaren, Ferrari or even Mercedes would have the advantage over their rivals around one of the fastest, naturally flowing circuits of the season was one few could predict with certainty.

But as teams held their debriefs within a rain-lashed paddock, the mood at McLaren was likely to be the best along the pit lane. Not just because of the free ice cream the team was handing out to paddock dwellers to thank the paddock for its support following the fire in their hospitality suite in Barcelona, but because Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri occupied the top two positions at the end of the day’s second hour of practice.

“A good start to the weekend,” admitted Norris as he set the pace in both sessions on the opening day of his home grand prix.

“I didn’t feel that comfortable this morning, but through the sessions we made some tweaks and I got into a much nicer window – which is important around here, because it’s quite on the nose, quite sketchy and pretty high speed. But I’m happy. I think we’ve made some good progress.”

Glancing at the times alone would give any McLaren fan reason for confidence. Norris four tenths faster than Sergio Perez, the quicker of the two Red Bull drivers, with Verstappen almost seven tenths off his best. But, as ever, that does not tell the entire story.

Red Bull pursued a novel approach practice, Verstappen running a single flying lap on fresh softs just 10 minutes into the session, far from when the track was at its best. This was likely a strategic move to move onto a long run on mediums early enough to gain data before the expected late rain hit, but even though he had not run the optimum run plan in theory, the championship leader was unimpressed with his ultimate pace.

“On the soft, it didn’t go so well,” Verstappen admitted at the end of Friday. “So a bit of work to do.

“We tried a few things as well on the car from FP1 to FP2 and we just have to analyse a bit what to do better for tomorrow.”

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The telltale signs that Red Bull have much performance still in hand can be seen from Verstappen’s sole push lap on the softs. He was around 10kph slower than Norris on the approach to Abbey at the start of the lap, 4kph slower before they hit the brakes for Brooklands and another 10kph off the McLaren into Copse, which he was able to take flat as a result, unlike Norris. If Red Bull were an anime villain, they would still be one or two transformations away from their ultimate form.

For the long runs later on, both Norris and Verstappen switched onto used medium tyres – although the McLaren’s were seven laps older than the Red Bull’s. Despite the difference in tyre age between the pair, the lap time delta looked promising for Norris as his consecutive laps were generally quicker than his rival’s. Norris lapped around the mid-to-high 1’31s on his stint, while Verstappen sat at almost exactly 1’32s.

In the other McLaren, Piastri did his high fuel runs on the soft compound, the same approach as both of the Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton and George Russell. But Piastri was not able to match the pace of the two Mercedes over the course of their respective long runs on the same tyre – something that left Norris a little wary.

“I think we’re pretty tight and even with probably the Mercedes – they seem probably just as quick as us,” Norris suggested. “They just didn’t turn up the engine and do as much in the final runs.”

But not everyone agreed with Norris about the potential of the Mercedes. Especially not Hamilton.

“It felt fine,” Hamilton told the official F1 channel after practice. “It generally felt good. Just not as fast as the guys ahead – like the McLarens.”

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However, Russell’s assessment of the team’s first day was very different to his team mate’s. “It was really good to be honest,” enthused F1’s latest race-winner. “The car was feeling great.

“We struggled a bit more this afternoon – we need to understand why. It got a little bit windier and I don’t think we quite nailed the tyres. But I think probably similar competitiveness as we’ve seen in the last few races.”

Amid the expectations of rain and how that could shape the rest of the weekend and with one eye on race pace and tyre wear should it remain dry or dry out over the course of the grand prix, Mercedes joined the Red Bulls and Ferraris by not running the soft tyres at all during the opening hour of practice.

“I think we’re planning to keep most of the soft tyres for the race,” Russell explained. “But we also need to see if we use a medium in FP3 instead of the soft. Just having to look for a strategy for Sunday.”

But one team who are likely not to feature in the fight for victory on Sunday, barring dramatic circumstances, are Ferrari. The team only had one car in the top five positions across the two practice sessions as the team continued to try and unlock more performance from their recent swathe of seemingly ineffective upgrades. But while the team did not feature near the front, Leclerc insisted they had gain valuable information to help them in that quest.

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“It’s been a very productive day,” said Leclerc. “Not particularly fast, unfortunately, but a very productive one.”

Asked if he felt the team could step up and fight their rivals in Red Bull and McLaren over the rest of the weekend, Leclerc tempered expectations.

“I don’t feel like it’s the case personally, unfortunately,” he admitted. “It feels like Red Bull and McLaren are a long way ahead, this weekend. But let’s wait and see. I hope I’m wrong.”

With rain very likely for the final practice session on Saturday morning, there may not be any further opportunity for teams to prepare their cars for a hopefully dry race on Sunday. But with the risk of rain looking lower for qualifying, there is a strong chance raw performance will end up deciding the grid.

Last year, the British fans and McLaren garage were thrilled when Norris and Piastri secured positions right behind Verstappen on the grid. Although they will likely be less excited by that same outcome this weekend, they will at least arrive to the circuit unsure about what might happen.

Other than getting wet again, that is.

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Combined practice times

P.	#	Driver	Team	FP1 time	FP2 time	Gap	Laps
1	4	Lando Norris	McLaren-Mercedes	1’27.420	1’26.549		0
2	81	Oscar Piastri	McLaren-Mercedes	1’27.631	1’26.880	0.331	0
3	11	Sergio Perez	Red Bull-Honda RBPT		1’26.983	0.434	0
4	27	Nico Hulkenberg	Haas-Ferrari	1’28.082	1’26.990	0.441	0
5	16	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	1’27.903	1’27.150	0.601	0
6	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1’27.858	1’27.202	0.653	0
7	1	Max Verstappen	Red Bull-Honda RBPT	1’27.729	1’27.233	0.684	0
8	55	Carlos Sainz Jnr	Ferrari	1’27.925	1’27.249	0.700	0
9	18	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin-Mercedes	1’27.554	1’27.274	0.725	0
10	63	George Russell	Mercedes	1’27.738	1’27.294	0.745	0
11	14	Fernando Alonso	Aston Martin-Mercedes	1’27.794	1’27.372	0.823	0
12	77	Valtteri Bottas	Sauber-Ferrari	1’28.254	1’27.381	0.832	0
13	23	Alexander Albon	Williams-Mercedes	1’28.649	1’27.645	1.096	0
14	10	Pierre Gasly	Alpine-Renault		1’27.732	1.183	0
15	31	Esteban Ocon	Alpine-Renault	1’27.974	1’27.743	1.194	0
16	22	Yuki Tsunoda	RB-Honda RBPT	1’29.864	1’27.745	1.196	0
17	2	Logan Sargeant	Williams-Mercedes		1’27.809	1.260	0
18	24	Zhou Guanyu	Sauber-Ferrari	1’28.590	1’27.813	1.264	0
19	3	Daniel Ricciardo	RB-Honda RBPT	1’28.477	1’27.916	1.367	0
20	20	Kevin Magnussen	Haas-Ferrari		1’28.122	1.573	0
21	50	Oliver Bearman	Haas-Ferrari	1’28.536		1.987	0
22	61	Jack Doohan	Alpine-Renault	1’28.735		2.186	0
23	45	Franco Colapinto	Williams-Mercedes	1’29.078		2.529	0
24	37	Isack Hadjar	Red Bull-Honda RBPT	1’29.270		2.721	0

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