Lewis Hamilton threw down the gauntlet to his F1 rivals on Friday lunchtime at Silverstone, setting the fastest time of free practice by more than two tenths of a second over championship leader Kimi Antonelli.

The seven-time world champion was more than half a second clear of any other driver – with team-mate Charles Leclerc third on the timing sheets at nearly sixth tenths of a second back – and more than a second up on reigning champion Lando Norris.

The session was the only practice running that teams will get this weekend, with sprint qualifying hot on its heels later on Friday in place of FP2 and the sprint race replacing FP3.

Oscar Piastri sparked the only minor on-track excitement during the session when he spun off in Becketts, but kept his white and green McLaren out of the barriers to prevent any damage worse then a wrecked set of tyres.

READ MORE: Hamilton and Ferrari enter ‘decisive phase’ as contract decision approaches

British Grand Prix FP1 times

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Sprint qualifying is next up on Friday, July 3, at 16:30 (local time/BST). To read the complete breakdown of the times and how to watch in select locations click here.

F1 HEADLINES: Hamilton and Ferrari in ‘decisive phase’ as €40m offer rejection revealed

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Max Verstappen has joked that his Red Bull F1 team may have to sacrifice their food if they want to get back to winning ways.

Red Bull have struggled so far in 2026, with Verstappen unable to claim a single grand prix victory as of yet, and looking a long way off any potential fight for a fifth title.

His team are fourth in the constructors’ championship, and at many race weekends this year he has found himself in a battle with the likes of Pierre Gasly and Oliver Bearman, rather than the Ferrari or Mercedes drivers.

It has led to rumours that the four-time champion might depart the Milton Keynes-based outfit, but as things stand, he is trying to help them to become a podium-challenging outfit once more.

Now, Verstappen has joked that if the team want to bring upgrades, they may have to sacrifice their catering department, due to the budget cap in the sport which incorporates all sorts of costs that the teams lay out.

“Is that possible with the budget cap? Yes, of course,” Verstappen told media following Austrian GP qualifying. “Then we’ll just have to spend a little less on catering!”

READ MORE: Toto Wolff announces 2027 Mercedes driver lineup’

Will Red Bull improve enough to keep Verstappen?

Red Bull brought some upgrades to this weekend’s Austrian Grand Prix, but that has not worked out quite how they would have wanted it to.

They have taken quite a radical approach to their development, and Verstappen will be buoyed to know that he is driving the car that has the best power unit on the grid, according to the FIA’s recent ADUO ruling.

But a driver of Verstappen’s talents should not be squabbling over fifth or sixth during grand prix sessions, and the Dutchman may seek to look elsewhere for 2027 unless something massively changes.

Verstappen’s manager revealed that he does have exit clauses in his Red Bull contract, which would allow him to leave if certain performance metrics are not being met by the team.

Red Bull team principal Laurent Mekies has a huge job on his hands to prove to Verstappen that the team can improve enough to allow him to win more grands prix and championships in the future.

READ MORE: Red Bull issue Verstappen apology after Austrian Grand Prix crash

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Mercedes F1 driver George Russell has revealed the ‘very different’ driving style that allowed him to defeat Red Bull’s Max Verstappen at the Austrian Grand Prix.

Russell took a stunning pole position-race victory double at the Red Bull Ring last weekend, boosting his chances of claiming the drivers’ championship by decreasing the gap in the standings to rival Kimi Antonelli to 40 points.

In the race at Spielberg, Russell had to hold off a challenge from Antonelli and, surprisingly given Red Bull’s form for much of 2026, four-time world champion Verstappen.

The Dutchman looked able to challenge for the race victory despite having started fifth, and ended up just 1.6 seconds behind Russell by the time of the chequered flag.

Now, Russell has revealed what allowed him to defeat Verstappen and Antonelli, admitting that he has changed up his approach to race weekends since his dismal performances earlier in the year.

Russell suffered four podium-less races in a row between the Japanese GP until the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix, losing ground quickly to Antonelli in the fight for the championship.

F1 RESULTS: Austrian Grand Prix final classification with all penalties applied

Russell’s change of approach

Russell has admitted that he raced Sunday’s race ‘abnormally’, suggesting that his approach has completely changed in the last couple of race weekends.

“The team have done a really incredible job to sort of put some real answers down for why the performances were not good,” Russell told media after the race. “It wasn’t like I came away from… Monaco and Montreal were two really tough races for me, and I didn’t leave either of them looking at the data thinking, ‘Where is the issue?’

“It was clear what the problem was, and it was clear how we could maybe solve that. And when we perhaps looked through some historical data, there were some trends of this, and it’s all just been exacerbated with this new car.

“So, coming into this race weekend, I think maybe my previous approach, it would have really hurt me on a track like this. And I drove the race very different and quite abnormally, to be honest, to manage the tyres, and it worked quite well. So, I need to get this further understanding.

“Last year, we were eight years into that, or four years into those tyres that we were running with, and I think I really knew in my locker how to handle the tyres at hot tracks, cold tracks, smooth surface, rough surfaces. And this year, I don’t, to be honest. So, I’m rebuilding that. But yeah, the team who’s done a great job to sort of steer me in the right direction.”

READ MORE: Toto Wolff announces 2027 Mercedes driver lineup’

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