Surprise, surprise – Mercedes was fastest in the first practice session for this weekend’s 70th Anniversary Grand Prix at Silverstone. Valtteri Bottas took the honors for being the first practice session king as he was 0.138 seconds faster than his teammate and six-time defending world champion, Lewis Hamilton, in leading the now all-too-familiar Mercedes one-two atop the leaderboard.
Behind Bottas and Hamilton at Silverstone were Red Bull’s Max Verstappen in third, Racing Point’s Nico Hulkenberg – sitting in for Sergio Perez, abolished due to contracting Covid-19 – in fourth, Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc in fifth, Red Bull’s Alex Albon in sixth and Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel in seventh.
Although he also substituted for Perez in the driver’s seat for last week’s 2020 British Grand Prix, Hulkenberg was unable to take a lap in the race when the car experienced a power unit failure.
