Alex Albon, who drives for Williams, was third fastest, which was a surprise. He was 0.253 seconds behind the leader, which shows that other teams haven’t hit their full potential this weekend.

Behind the Red Bulls in fourth place, Fernando Alonso’s Aston Martin was the first front-runner that had been around for a while.

In fifth place, he was just 0.012 seconds ahead of Charles Leclerc of Ferrari.

Alonso was 0.668 seconds behind Verstappen, who is trying to win his sixth race in a row this weekend. Perez was 0.448 seconds behind the pace set by his teammate.

Even though Verstappen complained about a lack of grip that made him feel like he was driving on ice, his speed proved what everyone thought before the race: that Silverstone’s high-speed turns would show how much better the Red Bull was than the rest of the field.

Esteban Ocon had a good race and set the sixth fastest time in his improved Alpine, which has a new front wing. He was faster than Lando Norris in a McLaren and Carlos Sainz in a Ferrari.

In addition to the big change that made the McLaren faster at the Austrian Grand Prix last weekend, Norris’s car also has a new front wing.

Mercedes had a hard time in class. Lewis Hamilton and George Russell were only 12th and 14th fastest, even though both of their cars had another new front wing. Mercedes is still making changes to get them back in the race.

Russell said that the car was “all over the place in Turns Six and Seven” because both drivers seemed to be struggling with a lack of rear grip, which has been a problem for Mercedes since the start of 2022.

Mercedes didn’t use the soft tire, which hurt their places.

The teams were trying out the new Pirelli tires for the first time. These tires will be used for the rest of the season and have a better design to make them less likely to fail.

There were blue skies and temperatures close to 25C during the session, and the grandstands were full. Over the three days of the race meeting, 480,000 people were expected at Silverstone.

On the weekend, there is a chance of rain and the weather will be rough.

As shooting starts for the new Apple F1 movie, people there will get to see Hollywood star Brad Pitt drive a modified Formula 2 car.

The Oscar winner has been practicing at Silverstone before the race. He is playing a senior racer who comes back to the sport to help a rising young star.