Ferrari quick over one lap

In a winning run that is inching dangerously close towards an all-time record, Red Bull have won on a variety of venues – from bumpy street circuits to tracks characterised by long straights and chicanes where traction and braking are key.

Silverstone is none of those, however. A fast, flowing circuit that offers some of the highest cornering forces of the entire calendar where a well-balanced car is essential to success.

So it’s likely that few of the many thousands of fans who flocked to a surprisingly sunny Silverstone for Friday practice for the British Grand Prix would have been shocked to see Red Bull and Max Verstappen set the pace in both sessions given the unparalleled performance of the RB19 so far this season.

“Overall the car’s been performing really well, so I was pretty happy with that,” Verstappen stated after the day’s running in what will have been little comfort to his rivals. “The performance has been strong in both sessions and we could complete our programme. Long runs look good as well, so pretty positive.”

But while the bulk of the second hour of running had focused on high-fuel runs, the soft tyre run that had put Verstappen on the top of the timing screen with a 1’28.078 was by no means untouchable. In fact, Carlos Sainz Jnr’s best time of the day came exceedingly close to beating the championship leader’s benchmark.

Ferrari may have re-established themselves as Red Bull’s closest rivals last weekend in Austria, but the Scuderia were playing down their chances of being closer or even as close as they were to Red Bull in Austria. Instead, Charles Leclerc’s fear was the Silverstone circuit would “expose a bit more our weaknesses.”

Leclerc was sidelined from the second session with an electrical fault, but Sainz gave Ferrari reason for cheer with his fastest lap where he virtually matched the Red Bull throughout Silverstone’s 19 corners. Ferrari have worked hard on making their SF-23 especially fast on straights in a bid to tackle one of Red Bull’s major advantages from 2022. The RB19 enjoys exceptionally low drag, but through his fastest lap in second practice Sainz gained time on Verstappen along the many straights, with the Red Bull’s advantage coming under braking and in the mid-corner.

“I think qualifying could be still good,” said Sainz – the defending British Grand Prix winner – after the session. “I don’t know [if] like in Austria or not, I think Red Bull are still favourites, but we could be good.”

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While Ferrari appeared to have decent pace, Mercedes and Aston Martin underwhelmed over one lap. The best time from any of their four cars came from Lance Stroll in sixth, almost eight-tenths adrift of Verstappen and Sainz’s best. Alonso, who ended the session in tenth, said that his team had “tested a few things” across the two sessions and that there was still “still a lot more to come” from Aston Martin over the coming two days.

Mercedes appeared to struggle, Lewis Hamilton and George Russell both unable to break the top 10 in the times in either session. It was as if Mercedes had traded performance with its customer Williams, which featured in the top three in both sessions courtesy of Alexander Albon, while Logan Sargeant backed up his team mate with the fifth-fastest time in second practice.

“It was a bit surprising in some ways, I have to say. Unexpected,” admitted Albon. “It’s just a normal day for us and we cross the line and we’re in the top three! So, in some ways, a bit head-scratching, but at the same time the car feels good.”

But if there was one common factor that drivers were discussing at the end of Friday that may have contributed to why some teams seemed to fare better than others, it was the high winds blowing across the Silverstone track.

“It’s so windy out there at the moment for all the drivers,” explained Russell. “I think everybody’s speaking about it. Really challenging conditions.”

As things stand, Mercedes has shown conspicuously less pace around Silverstone even than it did last year compared to its rivals, suggesting they’ve got more in hand for Saturday and beyond.

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Despite being seven places ahead of the faster Mercedes driver, Sargeant agreed. “It was tricky out there today,” he said. “We knew coming in the wind was going to be a big factor and it was for sure. It’s difficult throughout the lap, getting changes in balance.

“With the intense winds that we have, the high track temps that we had today, it definitely threw a bit of a curve ball.”

Heading into qualifying on Saturday, Ferrari will be eager to not only close up that 0.022 second margin to Verstappen but surpass him – as difficult as that will be. But for the fifth consecutive race weekend, there is a strong risk of a competitive session being affected by rain, with current forecasts predicting final practice to be almost certainly wet with a 40% chance of rain falling as qualifying begins on a likely still-damp track.

That does not bode well for Leclerc, who has struggled over the recent run of sessions in the changeable conditions relative to team mate Sainz. Leclerc insists that he is “confident it will be better” if qualifying does indeed run in the wet, but Red Bull and Verstappen will likely welcome a Silverstone shower on Saturday.

If it is dry, then Ferrari will be buoyed by how close they got to Verstappen last weekend in Austria – within half a second. But the Red Bull Ring is one of the shortest laps of the season, whereas Silverstone is one of the longest. That might seem to work in Red Bull’s favour, but Sainz is allowing himself to feel positive about his and his team’s chances.

“I think qualifying could be still good,” he said. “I don’t know like in Austria or not, I think Red Bull are still favourites, but we could be good. The race is going to be more tricky, but our quali depends also on the conditions and if it’s wet or not wet.”

“I think is going to be good fun and a typical British Saturday here.”

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Combined practice times

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2023 British Grand Prix

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