Lewis Hamilton tops first British Grand Prix practice, George Russell fourth

Lewis Hamilton topped first practice for this weekend’s British Grand Prix in a sprint format session. In the only practice event before qualifying, the Ferrari driver set the fastest time, finishing 0.213 seconds ahead of Mercedes’ championship leader Kimi Antonelli. George Russell, Antonelli’s Mercedes teammate and winner last week in Austria, was nearly 0.7 seconds off Hamilton’s pace in fourth, just behind the other Ferrari of Charles Leclerc. Lando Norris, the defending champion and last year’s winner at Silverstone, ended up seventh, more than a second behind Antonelli. The article notes sprint-race qualifying for Saturday will take place later on Friday, while grand prix qualifying is scheduled for Saturday afternoon. In live session updates, Verstappen was monitored for a potential yellow-flag infringement and Aston Martin was described as slower near the end of the session.