Norris tops British GP practice but has 'more to find'

Lando Norris headed Oscar Piastri in a McLaren one-two in Friday practice at the British Grand Prix.

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen was an unfamiliar seventh fastest but digging down into the data from the session suggested he was on the pace as usual.

His team-mate Sergio Perez was third fastest, ahead of Haas driver Nico Hulkenberg, Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton.

Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz, Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll and Mercedes’ George Russell completed the top 10.

It was an unusual session, with some teams seeming to run different programmes from normal.

Verstappen, in particular, ran the soft tyres early in the session and did not appear to do a low-fuel qualifying simulation run in the middle of the hour, as Norris did.

Verstappen also had a snap that led him to run off track in the middle of the high-speed Becketts section.

The same fate befell Leclerc early on as he complained about the Ferrari’s instability in high-speed corners.

However, the race-simulation runs at the end of the session suggested that Verstappen and Norris are set for another close fight.

Verstappen, whose car has an upgraded floor on it this weekend,m appeared slightly the faster, but Norris was less than 0.1secs slower on average over a 12-lap run, with Leclerc 0.3secs or so slower.

Own the soft tyre, Russell was fastest from Hamilton, and both had a significant advantage over Piastri and Sainz.

Norris also set the pace in the earlier first session, this time from Stroll, Piastri and Verstappen.