Zoom Zoom: A Spanking & Slippery British Grand Prix! Lime Green LandoStand! Multiple Yellow Safety Cars! A dream Papaya Podium, and Nicoooooo, finally!

Look at me going all fancy and classic !

We have arrived at the halfway point on the 2025 circuit, the 12th race which is the British Grand Prix at Silverstone, where F1 racing started 75 years ago! We have four British drivers in this race: Legend Sir Lewis Hamilton, pros George Russell and Lando Norris, and young pup rookie Ollie Bearman for the home crowd to root for. Silverstone, which was a former airfield, is one of the longest tracks, at 3.66 miles, gives us 52 laps.

Methinks though, that it will be Lando who gets the biggest cheers- heck Silverstone allocated THREE of their grandstands to his fans, known as LandoStand! Many of my U.K. F1 Threads mates will be in attendance, so a bit of FOMO for me, as I could not attend this year. Also, McLaren brought a new livery to Silverstone, mostly chrome, with the orange...I wonder what McLaren sponsor encouraged that Chrome livery? And who else noticed the rainbow colouring on the piping of the McLaren unis/kits? <grin>

LandoStand: THREE of these grandstands filled up with Lando fans!

Paddock Buzz: The chatter about Max going to Mercedes next season is just that: chatter.

Some buzz that does have some real racing world consequences is that Valtteri Bottas and Alpine have been seen talking to one another, so the clock may be running out on Franco Colapinto's time in that second Alpine seat.

Among the remaining two Brits, I've decided to go with Lando this post as Driver of the Week. Georgie will get a week, I promise!

Your Driver/team line-up. Switch Lawson for Tsunoda- and Colapinto replaced Doohan.

P1: 60 minutes. Mostly clear skies and a warm 70 degrees with a light breeze. There were a couple of 360 spins by some of the drivers, but otherwise, no incidents.

P2: 60 minutes. Temperature is about the same, but the winds have kicked up, and the drivers have noticed, saying they are being tossed around in their cars on the track. No incidents though, so onto Saturday's last practice and then Qualifying!

P3: 60 minutes. A bit overcast, 66 air degrees, track temp at 77 degrees and high humidity for this last practice. A five minute delay due to heavy marbling on the track from the previous historic car parade earlier! Not very tidy! Onto p3, and with eight minutes left, we get a RED FLAG as a piece of someone's car (Ollie Bearman's) is laying on the track, waiting to ruin someone else's race day! Also, Sugar-Free RB's Liam Lawson has been slapped by the stewards with a black and white flag for erratic driving! Offending item removed, and practice resumes until the final minute when we get another RED FLAG as Sauber's Bortoleto has a nasty out of control spin, as his car bounces from the left side of the track to the right side, but he did not crash into the barriers-which was good, but all that bouncing meant goodbye front tyres and toodles to that Sauber car's suspension. While that was happening, Ollie was going into the pit when his brakes locked up, causing his Haas car to do a spin and remove MORE of Ollie's car, this time leaving the front wing in the middle of pit lane until a marshal can remove it and allow the other cars to enter safely. Needless to say, that is how Practice 3 ended! Onto Qualis!

So photogenic, even as he ponders his own race pics!

Q1: 18 minutes. Still overcast, and still humid. Ollie has picked up a TEN place grid PENALTY for the Grand. Prix for aggressively entering the pit lane while a RED FLAG was out-ouch! Bortoleto's car has been repaired in the three hours tween P3 and Q1. Clock stops at 6:49 for a RED FLAG as Alpine's Colapinto slides off into the gravel on the last turn and gently touches the wall, and his Quali day is over. After the car is cleared off the track, racing resumes, as thy sky decides to drop some water, as it's drizzling. Ferrari pit wall once again makes baffling decisions and almost gets Sir Lewis Hamilton out in Q1, but Lewis's time holds for 14th with Pierre Gasly rounding out the 15 who move onto Q2. The bottom five are: Colapinto/Alpine, both Sauber'/Bortoleto and Hulkenberg, Stroll/Aston-Martin and Lawson of the Sugar-Free RB team.

Q2: 15 minutes. No incidents so the next bottom five are: Tsunoda/Red Bull, Hadjar/Sugar-Free RB, Ocon/Haas, and both Williams cars/ Sainz and Albon.

Q3: 12 minutes. No incidents, so your Pole position winner is Max Verstappen/Red Bull, followed by the two McLaren's/ Piastri and Norris, George Russell/Mercedes-4th, followed by the two Ferrari's/Hamilton and Charles LeClerc, Kimi Antonelli/Mercedes-7th, Bearman/Haas-8th, Fernando Alonso/Aston-Martin- 9th, and Gasly/Alpine-10th. Due to his 3-grid penalty in last week's Austria GP, drop Kimi to 10th. Ollie had his best ever Qualifying, but due to his 10 place grid penalty, drops from 8th to 18th.

Well, it WAS very hot in England last week....

British Grand Prix! 52 laps, 18 turns, weather is inclement, temps in the high 60's with showers earlier in the day, and some more rain possibly expected, so ALL drivers starting on the Intermediate tyres. Almost 500,000 fans showed up for the weekend's races, and the lime green colors from LandoStand at Stowe were seen from space from the THREE grandstands of fans that occupied them. At the end of the formation lap, George and Charles pop into the pit lane to change tyres (Charles Medium, George, Hard), Hadjar, Bortoleto, and Bearman also as THEY think the track is dry enough to ditch the Intermediates. And it LIGHTS OUT, and Max barely squeaks out ahead of Oscar on Turn 1, while Lewis is giving a go at Lando for 3rd! The last three turns ARE still pretty wet and we have a Yellow Flag out as Sugar-Free RB's Liam Lawson skids off into the gravel due to getting bumped by Esteban Ocon. Virtual Safety Car out as Lawson's car needs to be removed, some drivers electing to switch tyres on this semi-freebie pit stop. Apparently Alpine's Colapinto gearbox locked up, and he is a DNF (Did Not Finish) for the race. All this after 2 laps! Safety Car off, and racing resumes on Lap 4, and almost immediately Bortoleto skids off, but is able to rejoin the track (almost all those that took the chance to switch from Inters to a softer compound tyre are paying for it!), and is told by Sauber to retire the car; so thee racers are out already! Oh, and heavy rain expected in about 10 laps, so prepare for the scramble to the pit to change to new Inter tyres! Max and Oscar having a good go at it, until Lap 8, where Oscar overtakes Max on the back straight! Lap 11 and the rain has officially arrived, causing several drivers to pit to fresh Inters (not Wets, yet), and right on queue, Max slides his car off track, allowing Lando to overtake and take 2nd, as McLaren radios for Oscar to box to change to new Inters; actually the top 3 all box for new Inters (Lando has an awful pit stop (5.1 seconds), and on Lap 12, we have Oscar in the lead, with Alex Albon now in 2nd, Max, Lando, Esteban, Lance Stroll, Nico Hulkenberg, Lewis, Pierre, and Fernando the top ten at this moment, with 40 laps to go!

Lap 14 sees the racing stewards call for a Safety Car, as the conditions on track ar now close to aquaplaning, which is mighty dangerous at these speeds. That's bad news for Oscar, as he was 17 seconds ahead of the pack, and now all drivers basically get catch up and "race" in a line until weather conditions improve. Safety Car leaves on Lap 17, and just like that, the other Sugar-Free Red Bull driver, Isaak Hadjar, who could not see the car in front of him, bumps into the back of that car (Kimi's), and smashes into the wall at Turn 9, bringing yet another Safety Car, as Isaak's day is done (DNF). Safety Car leaves on Lap 21, and Max has a lock-up, spins off track, rejoins it but is in 10th place!!!!!! Team Papaya leading with Oscar and Lando in first/second, (might there be a penalty on Oscar on that restart?) and a sentence I thought I would never type or read before, Lance Stroll in 3rd! Rain has let up some, but track is very slippery. Mercedes tells Kimi to retire the car for a DNF. 15 cars left on track now. Oscar has been hit with a TEN SECOND PENALTY for his stop/start under the Safety Car release! He leads now on Lap 25, but for him to get first place, he needs to win by more than 10 seconds. Yuki Tsunoda of Red Bull slapped with a 10 SECOND PENALTY for causing a collision with Ollie earlier!

Since Lap 25, its been some solid rhythmic racing with some overtakes in the middle of the pack, with Nico now in 3rd 9started 19th!) trying to hold off Lewis, and Oscar with an almost 30-second advantage over Nico, which if he pits now at Lap 40, and serve that 10-second penalty, he would come out in 3rd. Georgie and Mercedes took a gamble to switch back to Hard tyres, and, nope, track still too slick for those, and a-spinning he goes off the track and is now in the back of the track. Lap 41, sees several of the drivers behind the McLaren boys and Nico pit, as they all gamble for these last 10 laps! Lap 45, Nico pits.Oscar pits and serves the penalty. Esteban decides to lighten his Haas teammate Ollie's car (a trend for Ollie this weekend!), as they collide on track, but are able to keep racing. Lando pits (2.3), and is in the lead, with Oscar and Nico right behind! Max, btw, is in Bad Mood Max mode, as sailors blushed over his radio message about the car.

Last two laps finds two Brits, the pro, Georgie, and the rookie, Ollie (who made up 8 spots from where he started!) battling for the 10th and last point. Georgie holds off Ollie for 10th, while Lando zips around the track on the last lap, gives a wave to his LandoStand fans, and crosses the finish line as your 2025 British Grand Prix winner! (I am ferklempt!)! Oscar comes in 2nd, while Sauber's Nico Hulkenberg, after 239 F1 races, FINALLY reaches the podium, in 3rd!

As you might imagine, the home crowd has gone bonkers for their local boy Lando winning, and a great show of respect in celebrating Nico's first ever podium, who easily got the fan vote for Driver of the Day!

Finally! Nico gets a F1 trophy for 3rd place on the podium after 239 F1 races!

Good Day: Lando and his fans! LandoStand a huge success and the home-town boy brings home the trophy!

Nico Hulkenberg: After 239 races, he reaches the podium! Congrats, Nico! Also to his team Sauber, getting big team points.

Aston-Martin: Lance must've doubled up on his energy drink intake...actually it was the A-M strategy team that had a brilliant plan with regard to tyre changes and the weather conditions. Both Lance and Fernando finished in the points for A-M. Ollie Bearman- starting 18th thanks to a "silly" error (his words) in Quali, Ollie went thru it ALL on race day, (the dual sliding with teammate Esteban across the wet track earned a 10 from the synchronized swimming judges!) and still managed to come in 11th on the grid!

Bad Day: Franco Colapinto- awful weekend, and did not even get to race in the GP. Flavio will be pulling that plug soon and inserting a new driver in that Alpine seat.

Rookies: Outside of Ollie, the other five rookies did not finish the race!

Oscar Piastri- One error on the safety car restart cost him the win- more chafed than anything. (Yes, he probably would have won the race without that ten-second penalty!)

Charles LeClerc: Not only does his season battle with water continue (in the visor this time!), but basically nothing went right for Charles in this GP.

Post Race Notes: Lando had to bring Nico's helmet to the podium cooldown room, as Nico had never been there before- he was perplexed as to why Lando had his helmet- too cute! Sauber had no champers to Nico's first podium (Sauber not used to this podium business), so Mercedes and Aston-Martin sent some over from their stash for a proper celebration. Then to put a cherry on top of Nico's day, Max flew Nico (and Lando) back home on his private jet!

Just Lando chilling with his own car- the one where the doors open upward! Trophy in the passenger seat!

A two week break before Belgium/Spa - after this race, that should be about the recovery time needed! Comments are open below!