Race starts at 3:10 pm in Hungary/9:10 pm in Malaysia
♦ Max Verstappen will start from pole position with Valtteri Bottas alongside. It’s the first F1 pole position for the 21-year old Aston Martin Red Bull Racing driver.
♦ The 4.38-km circuit is often referred to as ‘Monaco without walls’ because of the tight and twisting layout. This is not good for the Ferraris as their downforce is not as strong as the leading rivals.
♦ Improved aerodynamics on the Williams cars have helped George Russell perform better. This is especially important on the Hungaroring circuit’s flowing sequences of slow and medium-speed corners and frequent changes of direction. The teams are using the highest levels of downforce seen all year at a purpose-built track to Hungary.
♦ The Ferrari team is concerned about tyres. The circuit layout also places relatively high lateral loads on tyres and that, allied to often high track temperatures, means that rubber is put under some stress. Sebastian Vettel expects it to be a very difficult race today in terms of tyre management and given the characteristics of the car.
♦ This will be the last round before the teams take a summer break. The next race will be in Belgium on September 1.
♦ As the team managers enjoy their holiday break, they will also be thinking about the driver line-up for 2020. Although there are rumours of Verstappen moving to Mercedes-AMG, this is unlikely to happen and the team’s boss will be looking at retaining Bottas or letting current reserve driver Esteban Ocon partner Lewis Hamilton.
♦ Rain created a drama-filled race which delighted spectators who had not seen so much action in a while.
♦ Aston Martin Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen collected his second win of the 2019 season. The Dutch driver has won 7 F1 races to date.
♦ Lewis Hamilton, who was ill, finished 11th but got promoted two positions up as a result of 30-second penalties imposed on both Alfa Romeo drivers for start-line offences.
♦ Robert Kubica’s promotion to tenth place gave the Williams team, powered by Mercedes engines, its first point of the season.
♦ Russian driver, Daniil Kvyat, had two reasons to celebrate after the race. First was his unexpected third place after a chaotic race and second was the birth of his first child the same day.
♦ The event might not have been run this year had Mercedes-Benz not come in to provide support as the main title sponsor and provided much-needed financial support.
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.
