Welcome back! As you might have noticed, I switched up the usual F1 banner for this sleek, stylish one, which I love! But enough about my graphics choices, we are now at the halfway point of the season, and it's the classic Silverstone British GP, a track that produces exciting races, or so I'm told. Let's find out! Silverstone is just a few miles away from Oxford, also, Silverstone was once an old airfield, so there's that.
Doing my best Julie Chen impression, but first...news off the track!
We have confirmation: Young Ollie Bearman has signed a multi-year contract to race for Haas starting in 2025. Finally! :)
Same pic from a previous post, but Ollie DID know something!
Apparently Max and Lando have made up off track based on interviews this week. Lets see what happens at Silverstone! They were seen golfing together, so all is good with the lads.
But the team principals, Christian Horner of Red Bull, and Zac Brown of McLaren, definitely traded shots at each other's teams, unlike Horner, Brown did NOT diss on Max, just the Red Bull team and its crew. DRAMA!
As usual, the current 2024 team/driver grid (but for how long?)
We have three Brits racing, Hamilton, Russell (previous eye candy driver) and Norris. Which Brit will I pick for Driver Eye Candy? (May have tipped you off in the headline)
For P1, we have four rookie drivers checking their F1 practice card, and Ollie doing his 3rd F1 race (he's having a good week, isn't he?) for Haas. The other three rookie drivers and teams are : Jack Doohan, Alpine reserve driver, Franklin Colapinto, an Argentinian F2 driver for Williams, and Isack Hadjar racing for Red Bull. (the spell check went nuts on Isack's name!)
P1: 60 minutes, overcast and windy. 10 minutes in, RB's Yuki Tsunoda beaches his car on turn 7 (of 18) in the gravel trap. With seven minutes to go, Oscar Piastri's hydraulics conked out at the entry of the pit lane, and the car had to be rolled into the McLaren paddock by the pit crew.
P2: An English Summer, as they refer to it over there, as it's overcast, with a slight chance of rain. Both Tsunoda and Paistri are back on track. Nothing much happened, other than the rain did arrive with about five minutes to go. Both McLarens (Norris and Piastri) were 1 and 2 and had faster times than last years' Silverstone GP!
P3: Another 60 minutes, and the weather is cold at 50 degrees, with high (92%) humidity. Apparently it rained continuously overnight, and the track is wet as light rain is falling, so the Intermediate tyres will be coming out to race on a slick track. Fifteen minutes in, Alpine's Pierre Gasly finds the gravel pit on turn 16, he is done for this P3. No other notes, other than keeping an eye on the skies for rain for Qualifying!
And the Brit Driver Eye Candy goes to...Sir Lewis Hamilton!
The tyres are a nice touch! Eyes up here, readers! #Britishroyaltythirsttrap
A note on how Qualifying works: There are three quick races to determine grid position for the GP on Saturday. First quali the last five drivers are cut, second quali again, last five drivers dropped, and 3rd and final quali determines the top ten on the grid and the ever important pole (1st) position. This also applies to the Sprint Qualis, you will just see me use SQ1 to show the difference.
Sir Lewis does love a workout selfie! Lewis is also a HUGE ally of the LGBTQI community!
Quali One: The weather is overcast, but threatening rain in this 18 minute quali. All drivers started on intermediates, but a few, like Perez, switched to the "slicks" (soft) At turn 9, the clock stopped with a red flag at 7:30 as we had Sergio Perez spin out into the gravel pit.
With a huge rain cloud coming in, teams have now switched back to intermediates. Q1 resumes, and it's an insane last minute, as drivers push it to get their fastest laps in to move on to Q2. At the end of Q1, both Alpine drivers, Gasly and Ocon, along with Sauber's Bottas, Haas Magnussen and Red Bull's Perez were in the bottom five and start at the back of the grid for the GP on Sunday.
Quali 2: Rain has backed off for Q2 , all drivers using the soft tyres for this 12 minute quali. No rain or incidents, so the last five in Q2 are both RB drivers, Tsunoda and Riccardo, Williams driver Sargent, Sauber's Zhou, and the shocker, Ferrari's LeClerc, who just missed the Q3 cut and will start at 11th on the grid.
Quali 3: Dry weather for these last 12 minutes, with all drivers on soft tyres to get the fastest laps for pole and grid position. Verstappen did not have his best lap, which left the door open for both Mercedes drivers, Russell and Hamilton to finish first and second, the first time Mercedes had 2 Brits finish on the front row since the mid 90's. With fellow Brit Lando Norris taking 3rd place, it is the first time in British Grand Prix has had three Brits as the top three. Verstappen was 4th, Piastri, 5th, Hulkenberg-6th, Sainz-7th, Stroll-8th, Albon-9th, and Alonzo-10th to round out tomorrow's grid for the British Grand Prix!!
Lewis before he was knighted by King Charles, looking spiffy in this suit in his early years.
British Grand Prix: 52 laps for the checkered flag that over 480,000 fans this weekend have been waiting to see, with a record 160K on GP Sunday, especially with three Brits at the front of the grid. Rain did fall in the morning, but at the start of the GP, sun was shining through the crowds.
And fans got a surprise, as the trailer for "F1" , the movie starring Brad Pitt, debuted before the GP and will be released June 2025!
On the formation lap, Alpine's Gasly car went into the pit stop, and he is OUT of the race due to gearbox problems, before it had even begun. And LIGHTS OUT, and by the 5th lap, Russell and Hamilton are up front, while Verstappen overtakes Norris for 3rd. Leclerc jumped up from 11th to 8th. Almost all drivers are running on medium tyres, btw.
On Lap 16, Norris pulls a brilliant overtake on Verstappen to reclaim 3rd place, and the Silverstone crowd goes WILD. Mother Nature though, wants to get into the action as light rain is starting to fall!
Lap 18 is the Overtake lap, as Piastri overtakes Verstappen for 4th, Hamilton overtakes Russell for 1st, and Norris overtakes Russell for 2nd! Whew! DRS has been disabled to to slick, wet track now.
It's an overtake bonanza among the top four! Lap 20 has Norris overtake Hamilton for the lead, and a few moments later, Piastri overtakes Russell, and then Hamilton. It's now the two McLarens in 1st and 2nd, the two Mercedes in 3rd and fourth!
Lap 24- track dry enough for DRS to be enabled (makes the cars go faster down the straights). Lap 28, almost all teams have done a pit stop to change over to intermediate tyres, as a second cell of rain is heading towards the track!
Heartbreak on Lap 34, as pole position winner George Russell was told by his Mercedes team to retire the car (DNF), much to the dismay of the crowd and the Brit, Russell. Turns out Russell's car had a water pressure issue, and if he had kept racing, would've started burning up the car.
Tyre strategy and timing in play for the leaders as we enar the last laps of the race- when will they box, to change tyres in the pit lane? Sun is out, and the track is drying out, which is not good for the intermediate tyres the drivers are currently on.
And it's box-mania on Lap 40, as all teams get off the intermediates and switch to different types of tyres. After all those pit stops, with 12 laps to go you have Hamilton-1st-soft, Norris-second-soft, Verstappen-3rd-hard, Piastri-4th-Medium, Sainz-5th-hard, and Hulkenberg-6th-soft! Whew!
NOTE: I, and others believe it was a big mistake putting Norris on soft tyres instead of the mediums, as Piastri has been putting in some of the best lap times on the mediums while being in 4th place.
And on the 48th lap, Verstappen overtakes Norris for 2nd! (see note above).
And the checkered flap of the 2024 British Grand Prix goes to Sir Lewis Hamilton, who has now won more races (nine) on ANY race track circuit than ANY other driver in F1 history! The crowd went nuts, as fellow Brit Lando Norris came in 3rd, behind Verstappen, and Norris' McLaren teammate, Paistri, came in 4th. Hamilton also won the fan vote for Driver of the Day, while Sainz picked up the fastest lap of the race.
Driver Eye Candy Sir Lewis Hamilton wins his "home race" for Mercedes!
Will wait till the summer break to post updated ratings!
One last shot of Lewis to leave a smile on your face, here he is getting some rays with his 14 year old bulldog, Rocco! Leo the Leclerc pup, back to your puppy pen for this week!
Yes, Sir Lewis was knighted by King Charles December 2021!
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