After intense races in Baku and Spielberg, Formula One moves to Silverstone. Rosberg snatched the maiden win in Azerbaijan with Vettel and Perez in tow. For Austria, the Ultra Soft tires were the popular choice with Ferrari and Renault going for 9 sets, Mercedes and Manor going for 8 sets, Haas going for 6 sets and the other teams selecting 7 sets of Ultra Softs. The Super Soft and Soft tire selections varied between all the drivers.
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Rosberg selected one less set of Soft tires than Hamilton, which was why he ran the Super Softs in the final stint much to Hamilton’s confusion. Lewis was under the impression that both cars were on a similar strategy, as was evident in the radio transmission to the team.
Qualifying reaped huge rewards to Nico Hulkenberg and surprisingly Jenson Button, courtesy of penalties, changeable weather conditions and broken suspensions. Sadly Hulkenberg squandered his front row start and ended a dismal race for the Force India team in the pitlane, meanwhile, teammate Perez furthered the Indian team’s misery in the wall.
Button in the mean time had a lightning quick start to slot in behind former teammate Hamilton for as long as he could and ultimately finished the race in 6th place, thus turning Ron Dennis’ frown upside-down. Although Max Verstappen won the Driver of the Day award, Manor’s Pascal Wehrlein won everyone’s hearts by finishing on 10th and earning 1 point.
It was a mixed day for Ferrari with Vettel spinning out due to an exploded tire, later deemed the fault of debris by Pirelli, Raikkonen in the mean time rounded out the podium. But the big story of the race was Hamilton’s and Rosberg’s sensational last lap clash which brought Lewis even closer to Nico.
Rosberg was penalized in the aftermath but whether the move was deliberate or not remains debatable. Hamilton in the meantime survived the encounter and went to win, and Rosberg limped home in 4th place with a penalty on his head.
British GP Preview
Going into the Silverstone GP, Rosberg leads Hamilton by 9 points, but their latest coming together meant that Mercedes were less than impressed. In fact, Toto Wolff even issued a warning to both drivers to behave or the Brackley squad would be forced to pull off a Verstappen and Wehrlein’s performance has attracted attention.
The 2016 season marks the 50th time that the Silverstone circuit has played host to the British GP. Ferrari holds the record for the most laps led in the British GP with a mind-boggling 1060 laps! The legendary Jim Clark hold the record for the most individual laps led with 365.
Although this is his 17th appearance in Silverstone, a podium and victory still eludes McLaren Honda’s Jenson Button. Of 16 races since 2000, the safety car has made an appearance 7 times. Lewis Hamilton will be searching for his 4th British GP victory to level with Nigel Mansell.
Of the current grid, Fernando Alonso has finished on the podium the most times with 6 under his belt. Ferrari also holds the record of the most number of wins with 16. In 66 races the British GP has had a home winner only 23 times. The lap record was set by Mark Webber in 2013 with a 1:33.401.
This is essentially a home race for 7 teams on the grid because all seven teams have their factories within a 90km radius from Silverstone.
The tires available for this event are the Hards, the Mediums and the Softs.
Live Telecast timings
The Silverstone GP will air on Star Sports 4 and Star Sports 4 HD in India
FP1 on Friday 8th July at 14:30pm
FP2 on Friday 8th July at 18:30pm
FP3 on Saturday 9th July at 14:30pm
Qualifying on Saturday 9th July at 17:30pm
Race on Sunday 10th July at 17:30pm
