After Max Verstappen took a shock victory in a dramatic Austrian GP as both Silver Arrows faltered and Sebastian Vettel re-claiming the championship lead, round 10 of the 2018 FIA Formula One World Championship returns to the fast and historic Silverstone Circuit this weekend for the Formula 1 2018 Rolex British Grand Prix. This marks the 72^nd running of the British Grand Prix, the 69^th time as part of a World Championship event and the 53^rd time that the British Grand Prix has been held at Silverstone. This is the final part of the first triple header in the sport’s history.

 

 

A look at the Silverstone Circuit

 

 

Silverstone Circuit is a permanent racing circuit in England next to the Northhamptonshire Villages of Silverstone and Whittlebury. The circuit sits on the Northamptonshire and Buckinghamshire border, with the current main circuit entry on the Buckinghamshire side. The Northamptonshire towns of Towcester, Brackley and Buckinghamshire town of Buckingham are close by, and the nearest large towns are Northampton and Milton Keynes.

 

Silverstone is the current home of the British Grand Prix, which it first hosted in 1948. The 1950 British Grand Prix at Silverstone was the first race in the newly created Formula One World Championship. The race rotated between Silverstone, Aintree and Brands Hatch from 1955 to 1986, but relocated permanently to Silverstone in 1987.

 

The circuit is built on the site of a World War II Royal Air Force bomber station, RAF Silverstone which opened in 1943. The airfield’s three runways in classic WWII triangle format lie within the outline of the current track.

 

Giuseppe Farina was the inaugural winner of the British Grand Prix which was the first round of the championship in 1950 when the Formula One World Championship was formed and was also the first driver to win the inaugural Formula One World Championship with Alfa Romeo.

 

The circuit layout has changed many times throughout its history on the Formula One calendar with the current front straight featuring the Silverstone Wing pit building which is located in between Club and Abbey Corner has been used since 2011. The current front straight was also used in 2010 while the Silverstone Wing building was being built but the front straight was located at the old pit straight in between Luffield, Woodcote and Copse corner.

 

The current Arena Grand Prix Circuit layout currently being used runs in a clockwise direction and is 5.891km (3.661mi) in length and has 18 corners.

 

Race distance is 306.198km (190.163 mi) with 52 laps in total.

 

Lewis Hamilton holds the fastest lap record of the current circuit layout set in 2017 with a 1:30.621 in his Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport F1 W08 EQ Power+.

 

Four-time World Champion’s Lewis Hamilton, Alain Prost and the late great two-time World Champion Jim Clark both share the most victories at the British Grand Prix with five each.

 

Scuderia Ferrari are the most successful Constructor at the British Grand Prix with 15 victories.

 

A lap of the Silverstone Circuit

 

The start of the track begins between Club and Abbey corner. Almost flat out, the right-hander of Abbey leads immediately into the left-hander of Farm before cars heavily brake into the second gear, right-handed turn 3 Village corner. The even slower left-hander of The Loop comes immediately after, and leads into the flat-out left-hander of Aintree, before cars head down the first DRS zone of the Wellington Straight, designed in 2010 to promote overtaking. Turn 6, the left hander of Brooklands, is taken by drivers in second gear and leads immediately into Luffield, another second gear curve; a right-hand hairpin. The right-handed kink of Woodcote leads cars down the old pit straight, before the difficult sixth gear right hand Copse corner, with a minimum speed of 281 kph in the dry for Formula One cars.

 

Then, the equally tricky complex of Maggotts, Becketts and Chapel – a left-right-left-right-left complex with a minimum speed of 209 kph, leads cars down the Hangar Straight with the fifth gear right-hander of Stowe lurking at the end. The fifteenth turn of the track, Stowe, has a minimum speed of 201 kph and precedes a short straight, named Vale, which leads cars downhill towards the Club complex. Heavy braking is required for the left-hander of turn 16, and understeer can be an issue for the next right-handers of turns 17 and 18, as cars tentatively accelerate round to the start-finish straight.

 

The Last Five Winners

 

 

2017: Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes AMG F1. 2016: Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes AMG Petronas F1. 2015: Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes AMG Petronas F1. 2014: Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes AMG Petronas F1. 2013: Nico Rosberg, Mercedes AMG Petronas F1.

 

Tyres

 

 

Pirelli will be bringing with them the Ice Blue side-walled Hard tyres for the first time this weekend at Silverstone along with the white-branded Medium compounds and the yellow-marked Soft tyres as well as the Intermediate (green) and Wet (blue) compounds to the event in case of rain.

 

Pirelli have brought these compounds to Silverstone due to the fast and flowing circuit especially through the high-speed corners. Significant levels of degradation will be expected especially if temperatures are warm as Silverstone gives the highest lateral energy loads on the tyres out of the entire calendar.

 

With the circuit being resurfaced most recently, Pirelli have brought the thinner-tread variant tyres, previously used in Spain and France. These are designed to prevent the compounds overheating and blistering, which was one of the major influences in the outcome of last weekend’s Austrian Grand Prix.

 

Austrian Grand Prix winner Max Verstappen has opted for the most conservative approach in Great Britain, selecting seven sets of the softs along with four sets of mediums and two sets of the harder compounds.

 

The Dutchman will have one less set of softs compared to his frontrunning rivals, with the rest of the field going for nine or ten sets of the softest tyre available.

 

Verstappen’s Red Bull team-mate Daniel Ricciardo has two sets of harder tyres, three mediums and eight softs.

 

Championship rivals Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel have made the same allocations opting for one set of the hards, four sets of the mediums and eight sets of the softer tyres.

 

Valtteri Bottas has an extra set of hards and one less set of mediums than his team-mate Hamilton while Kimi Raikkonen has the same choices as Ferrari team-mate Vettel.

 

Renault and Toro Rosso were the most aggressive in their choices selecting ten sets of the softest tyres available for all their drivers.

 

Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg is the only driver in the field to have selected just one set of the white-branded Medium rubber.

 

The blue-branded harder tyre is the same as last year’s medium, which was used at the 2017 event.

 

A reminder of the rules: Each driver on the grid must save one set of the softest tyre available for Q3. This set will then be given back to those who make the top 10, but the remaining drivers will keep it for the race.

 

Each driver must have both sets of the other nominated tyres for the race.

 

The teams are three to choose the remaining ten sets, with a total of 13 for the Grand Prix weekend.

 

DRS Zones

There will now be three DRS Zones at Silverstone. The first detection point is 25 metres before turn three (Abbey) with the activation point 30 metres after turn five Aintree) on the Wellington Straight. The second detection point is at turn 11 (Maggots) with the activation point 55 metres after turn 14 (Chapel) and on the Hangar Straight. The final zone’s detection point is 83 metres before turn 16 (Vale) and the activation point 62 metres after turn 18 (Club).

 

Pitlane Speed Limits

Pitlane speeds will be 80km/h during practice, qualifying and the race.

 

ICYMI: Austrian GP Rewind – Verstappen wins thrilling Austrian GP as both Mercedes crumble

 

 

Max Verstappen took a shock victory at Red Bull’s home Grand Prix in Austria as both Mercedes retired in a dramatic race.

 

Verstappen crossed the line ahead of the two Ferrari’s of Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel, who reclaimed the Driver’s Championship lead from Lewis Hamilton by a single point after Mercedes went from a high one-two in qualifying to a double-DNF.

 

Polesitter Valtteri Bottas failed to finish due to a gearbox failure while a strategy error under the virtual safety car ruined Lewis Hamilton’s day and a loss of fuel pressure forced him to retire.

 

How the Austrian GP unfolded

 

Hamilton and Raikkonen jumped by Bottas on the run down into the first corner, with the three running alongside each other, before Raikkonen went into Hamilton’s slipstream and attacked the Briton into turn three but locked up and ran wide.

 

This allowed Verstappen to test the Finn at the exit of the corner, but the Dutchman was pushed out aggressively and Bottas passed both around the outside of turn four.

 

Verstappen got the inside of Raikkonen at turn six and a slight touch of wheels nudged Raikkonen wide and allowed the Dutchman to get through.

 

Bottas was no threat towards team-mate Hamilton before a loss of hydraulics pressure forced the Finn to park his W09 EQ Power+ on the escape road at turn four ending his day early.

 

That deployed the virtual safety car, which saw all frontrunners stopping except for race leader Hamilton, an error which Mercedes Chief Strategist James Vowles came on the team radio to apologise for.

 

Verstappen emerged 13 seconds behind Hamilton, who ran 10 laps longer on his red-branded supersoft rubber without being able to stretch the gap further and eventually pitted.

 

The Briton fell to fourth, giving Verstappen the lead, but Hamilton’s woes continued a few laps later when championship rival Vettel forced his way past the Briton and aggressively pushed Hamilton wide on entry to turn three.

 

Hamilton gained a place back just after the midway point of the Grand Prix when Daniel Ricciardo had to make another stop to switch his tyres after struggling with a blistered left-rear.

 

The sole Silver Arrow of Hamilton started to chase down Vettel after receiving another apology from Vowles but then was forced to stop again after suffering with the same issue as Ricciardo with 19 laps remaining.

 

Hamilton’s race lasted another 12 laps before a loss of fuel pressure forced the championship leader off at turn three and retired on the left of the circuit on the run down towards turn four.

 

This ended the Briton’s run of 33 consecutive races in the points, with Hamilton’s last retirement being the 2016 Malaysian Grand Prix with an engine failure.

 

His dramatic end gave the top three an untroubled run to the finish line, with Raikkonen rapidly charging within two seconds of Verstappen by the end but did not force the Dutchman under pressure and also was unchallenged by Vettel.

 

Ricciardo should have came home in fourth place following Hamilton’s exit but the Australian already retired after a gearbox issue just after the Briton’s final pitstop.

 

This meant Haas F1 Team’s Romain Grosjean would score his first points of the 2018 season in style and the best result in the Kannapolis-Banbury outfit’s history.

 

Team-mate Kevin Magnussen fought back after losing places due to not pitting under the virtual safety car to take fifth place and secure a good haul of points for Haas, which propelled them to fifth in the Constructors.

 

The Force India pairing followed next with Esteban Ocon and Sergio Perez taking sixth and seventh respectively after all the chaos.

 

Pit-lane starter Fernando Alonso finished eighth in his Renault-powered McLaren with the Spaniard running 19^th earlier on and after complaining over the radio that he would not run in that position for the entire race, he used the virtual safety car to his advantage and ran a long second stint to take the four points.

 

This included an aggressive move on Sauber’s Charles Leclerc, who snatch ninth placed back from team-mate Marcus Ericsson after the Swedish driver was allowed past his team-mate to try and hunt down Alonso on fresher rubber.

 

While that attempt wasn’t to be, Ericsson still managed to complete a double-points finish for the Hinwil-based squad after a very long stint on the softs before switching to the fresher supersofts and mounting a late charge.

 

Toro Rosso’s Pierre Gasly came home outside the top ten in 11^th place and ahead of Renault’s Carlos Sainz who was 12^th and the two Williams of Lance Stroll and Sergey Sirotkin who finished two laps down in 13^th and 14^th places respectively.

 

Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg and Toro Rosso’s Brendon Hartley also joined the three top runners in failing to finish the race.

 

Hulkenberg suffered a spectacular engine failure early in the race while Hartley stopped after a bizarre mechanical problem forced the Kiwi off track at turn nine and parked his Honda-powered STR13 at turn two.

 

The Situation

 

 

Sebastian Vettel comes to Silverstone sitting on top of the Driver’s Championship with 146 points and just one clear of Lewis Hamilton who is second on 145 points while Kimi Raikkonen is a further 45 points behind his Ferrari team-mate in third on 101 points.

 

Ferrari head to Great Britain on top of the Constructor’s Championship with 247 points and 10 clear of nearest rival Mercedes who is second on 237 points while Red Bull Racing is a further 58 points behind the Scuderia in third on 189 points.

 

2018 Formula 1 World Driver’s Championship Standings

1. Sebastian Vettel – 146 Points.
2. Lewis Hamilton – 145 Points.
3. Kimi Raikkonen – 101 Points.
4. Daniel Ricciardo – 96 Points.
5. Max Verstappen – 93 Points.
6. Valtteri Bottas – 92 Points.
7. Kevin Magnussen – 37 Points.
8. Fernando Alonso – 36 Points.
9. Nico Hulkenberg – 34 Points.
10. Carlos Sainz – 28 Points.

 

2018 World Constructors Championship Standings

1. Scuderia Ferrari – 247 Points.
2. Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport – 237 Points.
3. Aston Martin Red Bull Racing – 189 Points.
4. Renault Sport F1 Team – 62 Points.
5. Haas F1 Team – 49 Points.
6. McLaren-Renault F1 Team – 44 Points.
7. Sahara Force India F1 Team – 42 Points.
8. Scuderia Toro Rosso-Honda – 19 Points.
9. Alfa Romeo Sauber F1 Team – 16 Points.
10. Williams Martini Racing – 4 Points.

 

The Formula 1 2018 Rolex British Grand Prix weekend begins Friday July 6 with Free Practice 1 and 2, then Free Practice 3 and Qualifying Saturday July 7 and the 52 lap Race Sunday July 8.