Lewis Hamilton throws down Mercedes challenge in blistering British GP practice

Lewis Hamilton emerged fastest from the sole practice session ahead of the British Grand Prix, comfortably besting Mercedes.

Ahead of Sprint Qualifying, Hamilton posted a 1:29.260 to end 0.2s faster than the lead Mercedes of Kimi Antonelli. 

Hamilton's sister car of Charles Leclerc was also ahead of a Mercedes in George Russell in third and fourth, with Oscar Piastri fifth. 

Max Verstappen was 0.980s slower than Hamilton in sixth for Red Bull, with reigning champion Lando Norris 1.028s slower than Hamilton in seventh. 

Fellow Britons Arvid Lindblad was 13th for Racing Bulls, one place ahead of Haas's Oliver Bearman. 

Sprint Qualifying takes place at Silverstone later this afternoon, starting at 16:30 local time. 

After the early trading of lap-times, it was Antonelli who emerged the fastest, on a 1:30.777 on the hard tyres.

He did place second initially behind Hadjar, by just 0.007s, but the Italian was able to improve to go a tenth clear at the halfway stage.

Hamilton, who was the first driver out on the track, placed fourth after a series of 13 laps, with a best time of 1:31.201s, about two-tenths slower than former Mercedes team-mate Russell, who had completed a similar number of laps.

Verstappen was fifth in this sequence, ahead of Piastri, Leclerc, Norris, Gabriel Bortoleto, and Liam Lawson. 

Hamilton then improved his time on his 17th lap of the session to a 1:30.521, 0.256s ahead of Antonelli. 

The first driver to sample the soft tyres was Fernando Alonso of Aston Martin with a little under 30 minutes remaining. 

The Spanish racer initially had a hard tyre time of 1:34.771, before lowering this to 1:33.204 on the softs, an improvement of 2.567s.

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Before the soft tyre runs got underway for the rest of the field, Piastri suffered a high-speed spin through Maggots and Becketts, but otherwise continued on his way. 

With 12 minutes remaining in the session, the soft tyre runs began in earnest, with Piastri the first to complete a lap. 

He posted a 1:30.147, which was ultimately good enough for fifth place with Antonelli roaring to a 1:29.473s from his 1:30.777, an improvement of 1.304s from hard to soft.

This stood as the benchmark until Hamilton beat the Mercedes on his showing, with a 1:29.260, to best the Italian by 0.213s. 

Leclerc was initially 0.8s behind Hamilton but a second attempt was enough for him to climb to third with Russell in fourth.

Verstappen was 0.046s clear of Norris in sixth and seventh, with Hadjar, Nico Hulkenberg, and Liam Lawson rounding out the top 10. 

Hulkenberg and Lawson were involved in an incident as the Audi left the pits that briefly caught the attention of the stewards, but no further action was formally taken.