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Lewis Hamilton set the pace in the only practice session for the British Grand Prix at Silverstone, giving his home crowd plenty to cheer on the opening day of the weekend. Hamilton’s best lap of 1:29.260 put him 0.213 seconds ahead of Mercedes rookie Kimi Antonelli, with Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc third and George Russell fourth. Hamilton had played down expectations before the weekend, but his early speed suggested strong form at a circuit where he has won nine times before as he chased a record-breaking eighth world title and a 10th Silverstone victory.

The session took place during a compressed sprint weekend, with teams getting just one hour of practice before sprint qualifying later on Friday. In bright, dry 23C conditions, all drivers began on hard tires while gathering setup and tire data, then switched to softer rubber late in the hour. Antonelli briefly went quickest before Hamilton reclaimed first place, while Leclerc and Russell completed the top four. Oscar Piastri, Max Verstappen, Lando Norris, Isack Hadjar, Nico Hülkenberg and Liam Lawson rounded out the top 10.

Piastri spun at Becketts, and Norris went out early and finished more than a second off the pace. McLaren and Red Bull looked a little behind the leading runners. Audi impressed on a single lap, with Hülkenberg inside the top 10, while Cadillac’s upgraded package appeared to bring it closer to Aston Martin, although reliability concerns were not fully resolved. Organizers expected a record British Grand Prix crowd of 500,000 spectators.

Carlos Sainz has called for Formula 1 to change how qualifying interruptions are punished, proposing a three-place grid penalty for any driver who causes a yellow or red flag, even if the incident is unintentional. He said the rule would reduce gamesmanship, discourage drivers from benefiting when another competitor’s crash interrupts the session, and provide a stricter deterrent. Sainz said he plans to raise the idea with both the Grand Prix Drivers’ Association and the FIA.

The push followed a disputed qualifying session at the Austrian Grand Prix, where George Russell took pole for Mercedes after Max Verstappen’s crash brought out yellow flags. Russell was judged to have slowed enough under the current rules to keep his lap, and Sainz said he had followed the rulebook and “played the rules to perfection.” Even so, Sainz argued the lap should not have been allowed to continue in what he viewed as a dangerous situation.

Sainz said Verstappen’s incident should have led to double yellow flags or a red flag, and that the current system can give an unfair advantage to a driver who continues after causing an interruption. Kimi Antonelli also abandoned his lap because he believed double yellows were in place, and Charles Leclerc said a penalty rule could make sense at some circuits but not as a blanket standard across every track.

Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari head to Silverstone for the British Grand Prix with the weekend framed as a test of how far the team has come after a strong win in Barcelona and a more sobering run in Austria. Hamilton called Ferrari’s pace in Austria a “reality check,” saying the team was losing about four-tenths of a second on the straights and still had work to do to close the gap to its rivals. Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur said the team had studied what went wrong at Spielberg and expects a better showing at Silverstone, where the team will try to see whether Hamilton’s recent success can lead to another strong result.

Formula 1 drivers will take part in a Lego minicars parade lap at the British Grand Prix at Silverstone this weekend, with all 22 drivers set to ride individual Lego-built cars before Sunday’s race. The parade is scheduled for 90 minutes before the start, at 1:30 p.m. BST, and is meant as a fan spectacle rather than a competitive part of the weekend.

Each car was built from about 28,000 Lego bricks and weighs 280 kilograms, including 65 kilograms made up by the bricks themselves. The vehicles use standard go-kart wheels and were assembled by a 20-person team of designers, engineers and builders at Lego’s factory in Kladno, Czechia, over more than 6,400 hours of work. Sources said the cars can reach around 25 kilometers per hour.

F1 and Lego said the Silverstone activation follows the attention generated by last year’s Miami Grand Prix parade, which featured team-built Lego cars and ended with several of them damaged. The new format was shaped by fan demand and is aimed at recreating the viral appeal of the Miami event in a more polished presentation while entertaining fans at the track and around the world.

Lando Norris said he sees his future at McLaren, calling the team his family and saying he wants to finish his Formula 1 career there. Speaking on the Beyond The Grid podcast ahead of the British Grand Prix, he said he is heavily committed to McLaren, does not expect to leave soon and could imagine spending his entire career with the team. Norris said there is only one other Formula 1 team he would ever seriously consider joining in the distant future, but he did not identify it. He signed his latest McLaren contract in 2024, and reports say it runs through at least the end of 2027.

Norris has been with McLaren since joining its young driver program in 2017 and made his Formula 1 debut for the team in 2019. He said he stayed because he enjoys the people around him and wants to keep winning, and said winning is not the only factor in his decision. Ferrari was a serious option a few years ago, but he ultimately chose to remain with McLaren. His McLaren record includes 11 wins, 16 pole positions and 46 podiums, as well as the constructors’ titles in 2024 and 2025 and his first world championship in 2025.

He said his early years at McLaren, when the team was not competitive, taught him how to keep pushing even in difficult conditions. Norris said McLaren’s 2026 reliability problems have been dreadful, but its pace remains strong and his motivation has not changed. Entering his home race at Silverstone, he was fifth in the standings, one point behind teammate Oscar Piastri and 92 behind leader Kimi Antonelli, and said he is still happy at McLaren.