Lewis Hamilton delivered a reminder of his halcyon days on Friday when he returned to his favourite track to top the times for Ferrari in opening practice ahead of this weekend's British Grand Prix.
.gif)
The 40-year-old seven-time world champion beat the McLarens of title-chasers Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri with a best lap in one minute and 26.892, revelling in clearly his best Friday practice session since he joined Ferrari this year.
Hamilton has won the British Grand Prix a record nine times, started from pole seven times and been on the podium 14 times, a record for any driver at his home event. It was the first time this season that Hamilton had topped a practice session.
His Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc was fourth ahead of George Russell of Mercedes, Racing Bulls' rookie Isack Hadjar, Alex Albon of Williams and Liam Lawson in the second Racing Bulls.
Kimi Antonelli was ninth in the second Mercedes ahead of four-time champion Max Verstappen of Red Bull.
The session began after a busy morning with news of Alpine confirming the appointment of former Renault sporting director Steve Nielsen as managing director, in the wake of the exit of OIiver Oakes as team principal in May.
A highly-respected and experienced F1 operator, Nielsen has had many roles at Enstone in the past with Benetton, Renault and Lotus.
He starts work on September 1 and will report directly to the team’s executive advisor Flavio Briatore.
As expected, American Tim Mayer also confirmed his decision to stand against incumbent Mohammed Ben Sulayem for the presidency of the sport's ruling body, the International Motoring Federation (FIA) in December.
Mayer, son of former McLaren team boss Teddy Mayer and a vastly-experienced motor racing official, said: "Mohammed Ben Sulayem made promises three and a half years ago that were good ideas – transparency, governance – and he even promised he would be a non-executive president. He hasn't delivered on those ideas. In fact, it has been quite the opposite."
On a cooler day, Hamilton was one of the first men out to much appreciation from the big crowd, setting an early fastest lap before Norris and then Russell took command.
Both McLaren and Red Bull introduced heavily-updated floors with the Milton Keynes based team handing Yuki Tsunoda’s car over to 17-year-old Briton Arvid Lindblad, a front-runner in F2, while Alpine reserve Paul Aron was given a run in Nico Hulkenberg's Sauber.
The first incident came when Gasly spun at the exit of Copse, but survived unscathed. "I absolutely lost it," he admitted.
After 30 minutes, it was Hadjar on top for Racing Bulls with Piastri and Russell second and third before the field switched from mediums to softs. Norris set the pace, but was soon beaten by Piastri and then Leclerc in 1:27.095.
The McLarens regained ascendancy with Piastri and then Norris, in a close-fought session that saw Hamilton go top again in 1:26.892 in his Ferrari, looking more comfortable in his car than in any previous FP1 this year.