First day
The day before the start of the British Grand Prix, the balance of power in the peloton changed dramatically. Sergio Perez contracted the coronavirus and was forced to withdraw from the race, forcing Racing Point to seek a replacement. The Mexican started the season very well and climbed into sixth place in the championship. But instead of playing on the home track for his team at Silverstone, he gave this right to Nico Hulkenberg, who had not driven a car for more than six months and was planning to spend this weekend in a television studio.
On Friday, the track warmed up to 50 ° C, so the teams were unable to set up the cars for subsequent races. Under such conditions, Mercedes' superiority briefly disappeared. The morning free practice session was won by Max Verstappen in Red Bull, to whom Lewis Hamilton lost almost half a second on harder tires. Valtteri Bottas lost a whole second, although he tested the car on the same tires as the Dutchman. Sebastian Vettel had to skip training, whose Ferrari caused concern among mechanics after two laps.
The evening session took place in the same unbearable conditions for the pilots. Only now Hulkenberg's partner Lance Stroll turned out to be the fastest, which once again showed that the team had good prospects for this race, if not for Perez's disease. Stroll won 0.09 seconds against Alexander Albon, who could not rejoice at his good time - at the end of the training he badly crashed the car. The top five also included Bottas, Hamilton and Charles Leclair. Vettel had problems again - this time with the brake pedal.
After Friday's races, AlphaTauri decided to replace the gearboxes for their pilots. And if Pierre Gasly, because of the retirement in Hungary, could not worry about sanctions, then Daniil Kvyat was punished by the loss of five places on the starting grid. In a situation where the Russian did not demonstrate any claims to qualify for the final qualifying session, this did not become a serious blow for him.
Second day
On Saturday, the weather took pity on the drivers and made it possible to ride on a not so hot track. In such conditions, Mercedes' potential has already been fully revealed. Bottas and Hamilton improved their performance and took the first two places. However, Verstappen lost less than two tenths of a second to them, so the fight for pole position was still ahead, but the German cars were still the more obvious favorites of the qualification.
Vettel never received a fully working car. He failed to rise above 14th place. The German lost even to Albon, who did not have time to get the car at the beginning of the training. But even in the last 15 minutes, the Thai pilot was able to bypass the four-time world champion. Gasli and Kvyat showed almost the same time, taking 10th and 11th positions.
Throughout the qualification, Bottas will continue to dominate Hamilton. Finn turned out to be faster than his partner both in the first session and in the second, when the Briton was completely deployed on the track, which led to a short appearance of red flags. But at the decisive moment, Hamilton managed to break the absolute track record and remain out of reach for Bottas. Verstappen with such a pace at Mercedes could not do anything and lost more than a second to the leader of the championship, taking the second row of the starting grid with Leclair.
Vettel hardly made it to the final stage of qualification, but could not compete with the middle teams and took tenth place. The next row went to Gasli and Albon, while Kvyat showed only 14th result. Taking into account the fine, he ended up in the very tail of the peloton.
Junior series
Before the main event of the British Grand Prix took place, the junior series races were held on the Silverstone circuit. The Russian pilots managed to win two of them, although in the end only one success was counted.
Nikita Mazepin was the first to celebrate the victory in the main race of Formula 2 on Saturday. Taking advantage of the problems with second-start Callum Ilott, the Hitech rider quickly climbed up from his fifth position. The Russian walked around Mik Schumacher, whom the fans are waiting for in Formula 1, and then made his way to the first place using a well-chosen tactic.
While the main rivals quickly consumed the soft tires, Mazepin was the first to cross the finish line with the harder ones. His compatriot Robert Schwartzman made a mistake with the strategy, having won two previous main races. However, at the end of the weekend, he retained the lead in the overall standings.
On Sunday, the best in the sprint was the Formula-3 pilot Alexander Smolyar, who started from pole. The Russian did not concede his leadership to anyone. In the last few circles, David Beckman tried to compete with him. Smolyar, thanks to risky maneuvers, kept the German behind, but the stewards decided that the Russian had violated the rules and gave him a five-second fine, which threw the Russian from first place to sixth.
Race
Just before the Formula 1 race, it became known that the return of Hulkenberg was being postponed. The Racing Point pilot had technical problems right before the start. He did not have time to fix the car, and the German could not even start from the pit lane.
💔 @ HulkHulkenberg # BritishGP 🇬🇧 # F1pic.twitter.com / KEfh5clUqi
- Formula 1 (@ F1) August 2, 2020The start of the British Grand Prix was quite calm. Leclair made a successful attempt to bypass Verstappen, but quickly returned to fourth place. Kvyat was much more fortunate - he immediately climbed to 14th place. On the second lap, the first drama took place right in front of him - Albon knocked Kevin Magnussen off the track, who was blocking his trajectory. The Red Bull driver had to drive into the pits for new tires, and the Dane finished the race.
LAP 2/52
Safety Car is out early at Silverstone after a collision between Albon and Magnussen 💥 # BritishGP 🇬🇧 # F1pic.twitter.com / sQj147ARU0
Before the restart, Kvyat was in 13th place, but did not stay on it for a long time. The Russian immediately overtook Antonio Giovinazzi and was behind his partner. The race was going well for Kvyat, but on lap 13, he suddenly lost control and flew off the track, crashing into a barrier.
LAP 13/52
Safety Car is out again - a big crash for Dany Kvyat at Maggots, but thankfully he's out of the car 💥 # BritishGP 🇬🇧 # F1pic.twitter.com / iVPZ9H9jHm
When the race continued, there was no change in the head of the peloton. Hamilton and Bottas alternately exchanged the best circles, depriving Verstappen of any chance of a place above the third. However, the Dutchman secured an extra point for the fastest lap.
The most interesting struggle took place at the end of the points zone, into which Gasly was able to break into in a dispute with Vettel. Three laps before the finish, the Frenchman even took ninth place, overtaking Stroll.
When it seemed that Mercedes had already secured a new winning double, Bottas had a punctured wheel. It happened right after the start of the 50th lap, so the Finn had to wait a long time for a replacement - he rolled back to 11th place. Verstappen decided to accelerate as much as possible and also went to the pit stop, but he probably immediately regretted it, because a puncture, albeit not so serious, happened at Hamilton.
The world champion reached the finish line with great difficulty. As a result, Verstappen did not have less than six seconds to deprive the leader of Mercedes of the seventh victory at the home Grand Prix. Hamilton held the lead, which he retained from the start, for the 20th time in his career, which was a new record in the history of Formula 1. Leclair came to the finish line third, Daniel Riccardo lost a little over a second at Renault.
WHAT THE ... 🤯
Lewis Hamilton wins the British Grand Prix with a puncture
Valtteri Bottas drops from P2 to P11 with two laps to go
Sainz drops from P4 to P13 on the final lap # BritishGP 🇬🇧 # F1pic.twitter.com / Pb4oXxLEmx