One hour of practice is all teams and drivers get on a sprint weekend, so there's no time to waste.

Session is now green.

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BBC Sounds

A warm welcome to Rosanna Tennant, Harry Benjamin, Andrew Benson and F1 journalist Rebecca Clancy for this Friday festival at Silverstone. F1 Academy championship leader Alisha Palmowski will also be popping by the commentary box for first practice.

To tune in to today's sessions, click the 'listen live' tab at the top of this page, if you're heading out all day, don't worry, just search for Sports Extra on the BBC Sounds app, or you can ask your smart speaker to "play Sports Extra".

There is also analysis, previews and reviews from the F1: Chequered Flag podcast all weekend - including an interview with world champion Lando Norris. Just search 'F1' on BBC Sounds.

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Only the hardest tyres will do when it comes to potential degradation at Silverstone, so Pirelli has chosen the C1 as the hard, the C2 as the medium and the C3 as the soft compound.

With the track action starting earlier this weekend with sprint qualifying on Friday, the tyre allocation is two sets of hards, four sets of mediums and six sets of softs, as well as the green intermediates and blue full wets, if needed.

Pirelli expect teams to opt for a one-stop strategy for Sunday's 52-lap grand prix, using the greater grip of the yellow C2 medium and red C3 soft.

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Lewis Hamilton, a nine-time winner on home soil, echoed the words of his fellow world champions Lando Norris and Fernando Alonso, revealing on Thursday the group chat has been bustling with thoughts on how the new generation of cars will handle the demands of the 5.891km Northamptonshire circuit.

"The fact we have long straights, I think this is going to be an unprecedented weekend in terms of the power deployment," said Hamilton, who started third in Austria and finished fifth.

"All us drivers have been talking on the chat just how poor the power is going to be through this track; we run out of battery power and there's only a few corners to charge the engine.

"The K will be switched off for a large portion of the lap and that's where we'll struggle probably the most.

"The deficit [to Mercedes] could be twice as big."

Andrew Benson
BBC F1 correspondent at Silverstone

Silverstone’s high-speed nature is going to make energy management a key aspect of this weekend.

The cars will be energy starved for portions of the lap, because there are so few braking points to recover energy. And the decision by the FIA to not allow teams to re-open the front and rear wings after Abbey and Copse - which some engineers consider to be a little over-cautious - will also make it harder to recover energy. So ‘super-clipping’ - recovering energy while on full throttle - will be a feature approaching Turn Three, into Copse and into Becketts.

Lando Norris said: "On a track like Silverstone, where you're at full throttle for what must be one of the highest full-throttle circuits of the year, you run out of battery very, very quickly. You're in a pretty complicated place.

"The battery starts to die before you go in (to Copse) and things like that. You'll still be going pretty damn quick. It's not going to look slow, but there are certain points, like into Maggotts and Becketts and things, where you're not consistently accelerating through the corner. You’re starting to decelerate through the corner."

Fernando Alonso said: "The first one that comes to my mind is Turn One and Two. So we cross the line here, then we need to de-rate at one point. From the de-rate point until Turn Three, that is the first braking opportunity, it is a very long way. And you are turning through Turn One and Two.

"So those kind of challenges, I think we will see different strategies for each team. We also have different strategies to try in FP1, deploying more gear there. So that is interesting in a way and that is the challenge of this year."

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The top four teams are starting to break away from the rest of the pack now after eight rounds of racing this season.

With another 2026 win on the board, Mercedes are 102 points clear of Ferrari at the top of the constructors' championship, with McLaren in third and Red Bull crossing the 100-point marker in fourth following Max Verstappen's podium at their home race last weekend.

Double points again for sixth-placed Racing Bulls thanks to Liam Lawson and rookie Arvid Lindblad at the Red Bull Ring closes the gap on Alpine in fifth to 13 points.

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George Russell winning in Austria last weekend has lifted the Briton back up the drivers' championship to second place, above Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton, and 40 points off Mercedes team-mate and teenage leader Kimi Antonelli.

Charles Leclerc's recent struggles have dropped him down to sixth place, level on 79 points with world champion Lando Norris, with Oscar Piastri jumping one point clear of the pair in fourth.

Max Verstappen, meanwhile, is lurking in the background of the top six now following his second place in Spielberg, six points shy of Leclerc and Norris.

Lorraine McKenna
BBC Sport Journalist

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Hello, folks. The 2026 season has touched down at Silverstone for the British Grand Prix and there are plenty of home drivers for the crowds to cheer for this weekend, as Lando Norris returns as reigning world champion, Lewis Hamilton has been back on the top step of the podium this year in Barcelona and George Russell is fresh from his triumph in Austria.

So, we left off in Spielberg with polesitter Russell keeping Max Verstappen and Mercedes team-mate Kimi Antonelli at bay to claim his first main victory since the season-opener in Australia three months ago. The win was a major boost for Russell after a difficult run of races, so can he continue his upward trajectory on home soil?

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There is an incentive in the title race this weekend, as round nine is also the fourth sprint event of the campaign. This is the first time Silverstone is hosting a sprint since the inaugural race was held here in 2021.

The downside, though, is the shorter race on the schedule means teams and drivers have only one practice session to give cars a run out before sprint qualifying takes place this afternoon.