Race starts at 3:10 pm in Germany/9:10 pm in Malaysia
♦ In spite of being ill (believed to be the flu) this weekend, Lewis Hamilton still managed to capture pole position on the starting grid. Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen will be alongside the Mercedes-AMG driver. In the event that he decided he cannot race, reserve driver Esteban Ocon was ready to take over in his place.
♦ The Ferraris should have had a chance at the front row but technical problems in qualifying saw Charles Leclerc getting into tenth spot while Sebastian Vettel will start from the back. Vettel’s car had a turbo failure while Leclerc’s was due to a fuel problem.
♦ Although he has not raced his car in the rain, Renault F1 Team’s Daniel Ricciardo is hoping for a wet track as he thinks it may provide with just a slight edge. He said that he noticed that the car performed well in the wet last year.
♦ As some other circuits have been experiencing, the extremely high cost of hosting a F1 round means they can no longer do so. Hockenheim has hosted F1 rounds since 1970 (though not every year) is likely to have its last race this year for this reason. If so, there will be no German Grand Prix in 2020 (and beyond) since the Nurburgring circuit also stopped being a F1 venue.
Race starts at 2:10 pm UK time/9:10 pm Malaysian time
Round 10 of the 2019 FIA Formula One World Championship sees teams and drivers travel to the English Midlands and Silverstone Circuit, home of the British Grand Prix. This year’s event marks the 70th F1 World Championship British Grand Prix. Silverstone has hosted the event the most times (53, including 2019) with Brands Hatch and Aintree being the other venues in earlier years. Silverstone and the British Racing Drivers’ Club (BRDC) have announces that the British Grand Prix will continue to be held at the venue until at least the end of 2024. The agreement between Formula 1, the BRDC and Silverstone Circuit was signed yesterday in London.
A true power circuit, more than 60% of a 5.891-km lap of Silverstone is taken at full throttle. A strong favourite with drivers and fans, its popularity, however, does not solely rest on the speeds reached. Instead, it’s the circuit sequences of fast and flowing corners that thrill both competitors and spectators alike.
The track is also famous for being demanding on tyres which, in the past, has led Pirelli to bring its hardest compounds to cope with wear rates. The tyre supplier has maintained that practice this year, choosing it C1 compound as the hard tyre, the C2 compound as its medium compound and the C3 compound as the soft option.
The Silverstone circuit was the reference circuit for the layout of the Batu Tiga Circuit in Malaysia which was opened in 1968.
Resurfaced track adds complications
Complicating matters for teams and drivers, however, is the fact that the entire track has been resurfaced for the second time in two years following issues during last year’s MotoGP event here. Understanding the new surface will be one of the major tasks of the weekend as teams build towards an ideal race set-up.
This is Lewis Hamilton’s home race and he once again goes into today’s race bidding to take the outright record for most British Grand Prix wins. The 34-year old Mercedes-AMG driver currently shares the record of five with Jim Clark and Alain Prost.
Where constructors are concerned, Ferrari has collected the most wins in the British GP. Including last year’s victory by Sebastian Vettel, they have 17 wins, three more than McLaren, with Williams in third place on 10. Alfa Romeo, having a presence in F1 again, won the inaugural championship event in 1950.
Championship positions before Round 10
Approaching the mid-point of the 2019 season, Hamilton has a 31-point lead in the Drivers’ standings over team-mate Valtteri Bottas. Victory at the last race in Austria moved Max Verstappen up to third place. The young Red Bull Racing star now has 126 points, three ahead of Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel.
Although the 25 points won by Mercedes-AMG in Austria represented the team’s lowest single-race points haul of the season, they still hold a commanding lead in the Constructors’ Championship. The team starts the race today with 363 points in hand, 135 ahead of Ferrari. Meanwhile, victory for Red Bull Racing at their home race in Austria edged the team slightly closer to Ferrari and they now lie 59 points behind the Italian outfit. McLaren is in fourth place with a healthy 20-point gap to fifth-placed Renault.
