British GP From Silverstone on Practice Day 1

George Russell thinks Mercedes are "nowhere" - British Grand Prix.

At the British Grand Prix, George Russell claimed that Mercedes were "nowhere" in Friday's practice.

Russell and his teammate Lewis Hamilton were the 12th and 15th fastest cars, more than a second slower behind Max Verstappen's Red Bull, which set the pace.

This was true even though Mercedes had added a new front wing, the most recent in a string of modifications to their cars that were intended to push them closer to the head of the pack.

The team "had to try to understand" their lack of pace, according to Russell.

Hamilton had mentioned: "It's a tough car to drive and no matter what we do to set it up, it remains a tough car to drive."

The seven-time winner claimed that switching from the medium to the in theory faster soft tyre didn't make thing any better.

He went onto say "We will work on it tonight and hopefully we will come up with something for tomorrow."

Hamilton's pace in the race simulation proved more better, faster than Carlos Sainz's Ferrari who was 2nd fastest on a single lap just 0.022 seconds slower than the Dutchman in practice session 2, but in practice he was much slower than the world champion's Verstappen in the Red Bull ending up in 15th 1.205 seconds slower.

The Silverstone event attracted 120,000 fans on Friday, and while temperatures were in the upper 20s, they are predicted to drop a bit over the weekend, when rain is also expected.

Despite having a little lead over Sainz, Verstappen seemed unstoppable, and his lengthy run using race fuel load was particularly noteworthy.

On the same soft tyre, the Dutchman's race-simulation run was more over 0.5 seconds per lap faster on average than Sergio Perez's, with Sainz trailing a little further.

With teammate Logan Sargeant running fifth behind Perez, Williams driver Alex Albon finished an outstanding third fastest.

In the improved McLaren that made such an impression in Austria last weekend, Lando Norris was 14th fastest.

Charles Leclerc of Ferrari did not start the session at all after the team identified an electrical issue during the lunch break, not a great day for the man from Monaco.

In terms of lap times, Fernando Alonso, who is overall third in the championship for Aston Martin, was only tenth fastest, while teammate Lance Stroll was sixth, ahead of Nico Hulkenberg's Haas, Pierre Gasly's Alpine, and Oscar Piastri for McLaren.

On his debut season the Aussie Piastri has the for the first time the new upgrade for the team Mclaren’s car, which was first seen last week in Austria on Land Norris’s car and he is testing out the new front wing this weekend, time will tell if these new additions will help with the team’s performance in the championship.

Many of the drivers claimed that they had difficulty maintaining grip, particularly in the opening session as they tested a new, more durable Pirelli tyre composition.