Sir Lewis Hamilton and Lando Norris set the early pace at the 2025 Qatar Airways British Grand Prix, topping FP1 and FP2 as thousands of adoring fans lined the banks and filled the grandstands at Silverstone.  

Hamilton has topped the timesheets during Friday’s first practice session, the seven-time World Champion leading the way from fellow Briton Lando Norris at his home event. 

There were two new names joining the action for FP1 at Silverstone; 17-year-old Arvid Lindblad had stepped in to Yuki Tsunoda’s Red Bull for his F1 weekend debut, while Alpine Reserve Driver Paul Aron was at the wheel of Nico Hulkenberg’s Kick Sauber.  

The opening segment of FP1 saw several home favourites top the timesheets, with Hamilton and Norris each going fastest before George Russell set the quickest time to head the timesheets. 

As the session entered into its final 20 minutes, Norris had returned to the top of the order – only for Hamilton to surge through to displace his fellow Briton by two-hundredths, the Ferrari driver setting the pace on a 1m 26.892s. As more laps were recorded, no one was able to better Hamilton’s benchmark.  

The second practice session saw Norris finish fastest, besting the Ferrari’s of Charles Leclerc and Hamilton. 

The Brit, buoyed by a win in Austria, posted a 1m 25.816s that left him 0.222s clear of Leclerc, and three-tenths faster than Hamilton, who had topped FP1 earlier in the afternoon. 

Oscar Piastri, currently 15 points ahead of Norris in the Drivers’ Championship, was fourth, with Max Verstappen in fifth – both drivers nearly half a second slower than Norris. 

High winds saw teams battle to find the optimum set-up throughout the afternoon, with aerodynamic performance affected. 

Martins and Tsolov take F2 and F3 pole position 

Victor Martins made good on his early promise in Free Practice to take FIA Formula 2 pole position after a breathtaking final lap put the ART Grand Prix driver on top in a tightly fought qualifying session.  

The Frenchman’s 1:39.731 was good enough to beat Rodin Motorsport’s Alexander Dunne by 0.065s, with Jak Crawford rounding out the top three for DAMS Lucas Oil. 

Meanwhile, in FIA Formula 2, Nikola Tsolov fired in a late lap to take his second Aramco Pole Position Award in a row. 

The Campos Racing driver had been bettered by title contender Rafael Câmara going into the final attempts, but one last improvement put the Bulgarian back to P1. He finished ahead of Ugo Ugochukwu, who wound up second for PREMA Racing, with Câmara having to settle for third.