Jolyon Palmer left ‘surprised’ by Max Verstappen’s data at British GP compared to Lewis Hamilton

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Lewis Hamilton topped the first and only free practice session of this weekend’s British Grand Prix, and his advantage over Red Bull’s Max Verstappen left F1 pundit Jolyon Palmer stunned.

On the hunt for his tenth victory at the iconic Silverstone Circuit this weekend, Lewis Hamilton hit the ground running as he secured the top spot in FP1 ahead of championship leader Kimi Antonelli.

The seven-time world champion’s Ferrari teammate, Charles Leclerc, rounded out the top three with a time just under six-tenths off Hamilton’s benchmark.

Further down the order, Red Bull’s Max Verstappen looked to have struggled with finding the right setup as he finished nearly one whole second adrift of the front-runners.

With the British Grand Prix serving as the fourth Sprint race of the current campaign, the only practice session of the weekend is crucial for drivers to set themselves up for the rest of the weekend. Failing that, Saturday and Sunday become much more difficult.

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Jolyon Palmer ‘surprised’ by Max Verstappen’s pace deficit to Lewis Hamilton at British GP

Speaking via Channel 4’s coverage of FP1 at the British Grand Prix, former F1 driver Jolyon Palmer expressed his surprise at the Dutchman’s deficit to his former nemesis.

Hamilton and Verstappen locked horns at the last round of racing in Austria, with the Red Bull ace coming out on top during their individual battle. This weekend, however, hasn’t got off to the best start for the four-time world champion.

“Individually, it’s great for Lewis, but they do sometimes show a bit more in practice,” Palmer began (13:29 03/07). “The team that I’m actually surprised by right now is Red Bull, to be a second down with Verstappen, and a further tenth from that with Hadjar.

“They’ve not found a lot on the soft tyre, and sometimes they do find a lot in qualifying. I wonder if they’ve just turned it down from the hards, and they’ll unlock a little bit more.”

Heading into the race weekend, there was a lot of noise surrounding Verstappen’s future at Red Bull after McLaren had emerged as a serious contender for his signature.

On top of that, it emerged that chief engineer Paul Monaghan is on his way out of the team, reportedly in favour of backmarkers Cadillac. The 58-year-old isn’t present at Silverstone this weekend, which will make it even harder for Red Bull to regain some pace.

Fellow F1 pundit David Coulthard believes Isack Hadjar’s practice programme in FP1 looked more encouraging for the Austrian constructor, however.

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Despite ending the session below Verstappen, the 13-time Grand Prix winner was impressed with the Frenchman’s commitment as he watched on from turn three.

“Unsurprisingly, Ferrari’s looking pretty nimble through there, and Mercedes, of course,” Coulthard told viewers of Channel 4 (13:01 03/07).

“McLaren seem to be struggling; it seems like they’re kind of on the cusp of being able to unleash some performance, but it’s like they just don’t have a stable platform right now.

“You would maybe suggest the same thing from that early run from Verstappen, but what gives the Red Bull team and, of course, the fans of that team hope is the fact that Hadjar looks hooked up.”