F1 | Ferrari in the shadow after the first free practice of the 70th Anniversary

For the second time this season the drivers of the top automotive category find themselves racing on the same track for two consecutive weekends. After Spielberg, which had been the scene of the Austrian and Styrian Grands Prix in succession, now it's time for Silverstone which, after that of Great Britain, this weekend hosts the 70th Anniversary Grand Prix of Formula 1. The three hours of free practice on Friday saw Scuderia Ferrari complete the scheduled program although five minutes from the end of the second session Sebastian Vettel was forced to park his SF1000 on the side of the track due to an engine problem.

Soft variant. Scuderia Ferrari, like the other teams, began the work on the strength of the data collected last weekend, being able to concentrate on detailed adjustments and tire evaluation. Among the few variations compared to the first weekend at Silverstone there is in fact the Soft compound brought by Pirelli: the sole supplier of tyres, which for each race makes available three of the five types of dry tires it produces, for this race has in fact shipped to England one step softer for each compound. The Soft from seven days ago has become the Medium and the Medium is now the Hard, and for this reason Charles and Seb immediately mounted the new product to evaluate it and study its characteristics.

41 laps. In the first session the Scuderia Ferrari drivers completed a total of 41 laps. The Monegasque covered 20 of them, the best in 1'27”062, enough for fifth position; the German one more, hitting his reference time of 1'27”498, useful for seventh place.

Afternoon. In the second 90 minutes Charles and Seb ran with Medium and Soft tires trying the two compounds both in qualifying configuration and with more fuel on board, to simulate some phases of the race. Both drivers achieved their best times on Soft tyres, Charles in 1'26"812, seventh best time, and Sebastian in 1'27"198 (14th), while they began testing with a high fuel load opting for a different choice of tires: Soft for the Monegasque and Medium for the German.

Broken down. Leclerc closed his session with 32 laps under his belt, two more than Vettel who had to stop on the side of the track due to an engine failure. The car has been recovered and the damaged engine will be sent to Maranello to be carefully analyzed in order to understand the origin of the problem. However, Sebastian will not have to serve any penalty for this inconvenience since the maximum number of power units used on his SF1000 has not yet been reached.

Plan. Tomorrow the last free practices are scheduled for 11am (12pm CET) with qualifying starting at 14pm (15pm CET). The Grand Prix on Sunday 9 August will start at 14.10pm (15.10pm CET).