Chiara Bättig put F1 Academy drivers on notice at Silverstone by topping Free Practice on her debut weekend with a 2:02.640. The Wild Card driver became the first to top a session in the series, and Qualifying was due at 18:00 local time.
Silverstone Free Practice pace
The lap that mattered came after a session that kept moving quickly. Ella Lloyd set the opening benchmark at 2:05.240 after 10 minutes, Emma Felbermayr then moved the bar to 2:04.369 and later 2:03.369, and Nina Gademan reached P1 on a 2:03.189 before Bättig took over.
Bättig did not stop there. She improved again to 2:02.640, then left the rest of the field chasing a time none of them could match. That sequence gave Silverstone Free Practice a clear leader before the evening session even began.
Alisha Palmowski and Nina Gademan
Alisha Palmowski, who arrived as the standings leader for Red Bull Racing, still finished second but remained 0.208s behind after improving. Nina Gademan, driving for Alpine, took third and ended 0.241s off the fastest lap.
The gap matters because it came after Palmowski had already closed in enough to threaten the top spot. Bättig’s final effort still held her clear by two tenths, which made the session more than a single-lap flash and left the front of the field split by margins small enough to swing quickly on the British track.
Top five at Silverstone
Ella Stevens completed the top five ahead of Ava Dobson and Rachel Robertson, with Payton Westcott in eighth and Megan Bruce rounding out the top 10. That puts the order behind Bättig into sharper focus: the benchmark was not just fast, it held off the drivers who had been building through the session.
Qualifying was scheduled for 18:00 local time, giving the field only a short reset before the next run of laps. Bättig has the lead time on the sheet; the question now is whether that one-lap speed carries into the session that decides the grid.
