With the British Grand Prix hosting the new sprint qualifying weekend, drivers took to Silverstone to complete their first practice session of the weekend. While qualifying for tomorrow’s sprint race inches closer, teams took the session to experiment their setups for an unconventional F1 weekend.

Although fans arrived at Silverstone in large masses, Max Verstappen topped the timesheets ahead of local hero Lewis Hamilton. In addition, Red Bull looked far quicker than their title rivals in Mercedes overall.

Red Bull a class apart in the first practice session at the British Grand Prix

While Hamilton received loud cheers from the capacity crowd, he briefly topped the timesheets. However, Verstappen stormed to the top by posting the outright fastest lap of the session. In fact, he left his teammate Sergio Perez a second behind in the timesheets.

Despite looking strong initially, Mercedes finished far behind Red Bull in the timesheets. Although Hamilton put an excellent lap on soft tires towards the end of the session, he could only manage P3. In addition, his teammate Valtteri Bottas finished a few places off in P5.

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During the session, Hamilton expressed surprise when his race engineer told him of his gap to Verstappen. “Seven-tenths, where is that coming from?” questioned the 36-year-old.

While pole position still looks to be a battle between Mercedes and Red Bull, it seems the Austrian outfit have the upper hand in Hamilton’s home race.

Norris impresses for McLaren in close midfield battle

The 21-year-old put an exquisite lap to finish P2, right in between the two championship contenders. However, Daniel Ricciardo finished significantly behind with a P9 classification in the session. In addition, the Australian finished behind both Charles Leclerc in P4 and Carlos Sainz in P6.

Sebastian Vettel put out an impressive lap to finish P7, outlining Aston Martin’s credentials in their home race. However, his teammate Lance Stroll struggled throughout the session, finishing a disappointing P18.

Although AlphaTauri took P11 and P12, fans can expect Pierre Gasly to put on a good performance in qualifying later today. However, Esteban Ocon completed the Top 10 ahead of both AlphaTauri drivers.

READ MORE: British Grand Prix F1 Qualifying Schedule: Where to Watch, Timings, Live Stream & Weather Forecast