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2026 British Grand Prix - Friday
Audi Revolut F1 Team took to the track for the opening day of action at the British Grand Prix. Today, the Silverstone Sprint weekend got underway with a single practice session followed by Sprint Qualifying. The team’s focus throughout Friday centred on maximising the limited preparation time available, with Nico Hulkenberg and Gabriel Bortoleto working to optimise the Audi R26 around one of Formula 1’s fastest and most demanding circuits.
The sole practice session proved encouraging, with Nico finishing inside the top ten and providing the team with a solid foundation ahead of the first competitive session of the weekend. Limited practice time at Sprint weekends always puts an added emphasis on the afternoon session and while a place in SQ3 ultimately remained just out of reach, the data gathered across Friday leaves us well placed for the Sprint race tomorrow as we continue refining set-up package for the rest of the weekend.
Allan McNish, Racing Director: "Sprint weekends always present an extra challenge because you have to condense all your preparation into a single free practice session while also keeping an eye on the rest of the weekend. Overall, our performance in FP1 was in line with our expectations and showed we had the potential to challenge for the top ten in Sprint Qualifying. We came through SQ1 comfortably, but neither car managed to put together the cleanest lap in SQ2, which ultimately left us 12th and 13th on the grid. That's slightly below where we felt we could have been, but there's still plenty to play for. Our focus now is on maximising tomorrow's Sprint before resetting for Grand Prix qualifying later in the day."
Nico Hulkenberg (Car 27):
FP1: 9th / 1:30.743 (29 laps)
SQ1: 1:30.107 (6 laps)
SQ2: 13th / 1:29.707 (6 laps)
"It was a fairly clean Sprint Qualifying session, but I don't think we quite maximised everything today. The conditions were a bit windier and gustier than they were this morning, and it felt like that affected us a little more than some of our rivals. We also took a slightly different approach with our run plan, so we'll go away and review everything overnight to understand where we can improve ahead of tomorrow's qualifying session."
Gabriel Bortoleto (Car 5):
FP1: 12th / 1:31.035 (28 laps)
SQ1: 1:30.407 (6 laps)
SQ2: 12th / 1:29.679 (6 laps)
"I think it's been a solid Friday in the office. We got quite close to fighting for SQ3 today, which is of course encouraging and further proves the steps we've been making. Obviously, it's only the second session of the weekend, so there's still some areas where we can improve and do better. Let's see what we can achieve tomorrow, starting with the Sprint and then going into Qualifying."
