Lap 40: Sutil and Ricciardo battling hard to break into the top five.
Lewis Hamilton, meanwhile, is back into the points as he enters the top 10.
Lap 39: So the top five is: Vettel, Rosberg, Raikkonen, Webber, Alonso.
Lap 38: Hamilton looks well placed to go clear of Di Resta, whose Force
India appears to be struggling a tad. And there it is! Hamilton up into 11th
and racing clear.
Lap 37: Webber up into fourth now. Meanwhile Di Resta and Hamilton’s
battle continues apace. First Hamilton overtakes, then Di Resta wrestles his
way back into the lead. Cracking to watch the two Brits taking each other
on.
Lap 36: A mail from Wayne:
Thanks! The kids have got the PlayStation on and somehow the whole of the
estate erm, I meant “Select Development”, has sent their kids
round too… All I want to do is watch the GP but I can’t, so thanks for the
entertaining live updates. I think my Fiver on Vettel was well spent at
11/8!
Lap 35: Rosberg out of the pits and straining every sinew to challenge
Vettel, who is in and out of the pits in super-quick time himself.
Lap 33: The battle between Hamilton and Di Resta is fascinating. Di
Resta just edging it at the moment but there is very little in it.
Lap 32: Alonso could be in trouble for an unsafe release. He narrowly
avoided an incident with Grosjean.
Lap 31: Rosberg receives some praise on the radio for being the fastest
man on the track.
Lap 30: Gutierrez into the pits and I think it was his vehicle
that produced the big chunk of debris on the track. He’s in and out in a
flash so we’re not able to establish exactly what went wrong with him.
Lap 29: There is now a big piece of debris on the track. Which is
precisely not what this race needs.
Lap 28: Lewis is in 12th and hot on the heels of Di Resta. The Force
India man is having to use all his cunning to fend off Hamilton.
Lap 27: Man of the moment Andy Murray wishes his fellow Brits
good luck:
Lap 26: “Make sure you open up the gap to Rosberg progressively.
You’re doing well,” is the message on Vettel’s radio. Just a couple of
seconds separates them at the moment.
Lap 24: Hamilton overtakes Gutierrez to move up into 13th place.
Rumours of his demise have been greatly exaggerated.
Lap 23: This is a funny tweet from Lotus. Thanks to Marc for the
heads up:
Lap 22: Safety car has left us and we’re back with glorious regulation
Formula One action.
Lap 21: Let’s run down the leaders for you once again: Vettel, Rosberg,
Sutil, Alonso, Raikkonen.
Lap 20: Safety car still there. And here’s the latest message on
Vettel’s radio: “It’s on the inside shoulder at this point we’re not
sure if it’s a tyre problem or a kerbing problem. Stay away from the kerbs
and try to save your rear left tyre.”
Lap 19: Everything just got very real, folks. Ian Botham has
intervened. The moment I can get a comment from Bob Willis I’ll let you
know:
Lap 18: Do you think it’s safe to keep this race going on? The safety
car is still out there as men in high-vis scramble to get rid of as much
debris as possible.
Lap 17: What’s going on out there? Is this race going to be stopped?
This is the situation with the leaders:
Lap 16: We’ve got a safety car out on the track now. “You’ve got
to stay off the kerbs as much as you can. There are punctures all around,”
comes the message on Vettel’s radio. Sage advice.
Lap 15: Another tyre incident! Vergne’s rear left is gone!
Lap 14: Vettel still leading after a very quick pit stop. He has a
healthy advantage of well over three seconds. “Vettel is on prime
tyres. We believe he is on a three-stop strategy,” comes the message on
Rosberg’s radio.
Lap 12: Grosjean with a fastest lap time of 1.37.960 as he takes on
Vergne for sixth position. Earlier this helpful message came on the Red Bull
radio: “People have been having punctures at Turn 4 Turn 5.”
Lap 11: Just to clarify: Hamilton is back into the race. But he’s right
at the back. Same story with Massa.
Lap 10: Massa’s gone off with a left rear tyre explosion now. What the
heck is going on? Debris or other bits on circuit? Whatever it is it’s
causing chaos out there.
Lap nine: Vettel is now the leader of this Grand Prix. That left rear
tyre of Hamilton’s just exploded. Astonishing scenes.
Lap eight: LEWIS HAMILTON’s hopes are over.. He’s lost his left rear
tyre. Sickener for home fans:
Lap seven: Webber’s front wing damage doesn’t seem to be knocking his
confidence as he overtakes Button.
Lap six: Fastest lap for Hamilton of 1.38:194 and his lead over Vettel
is increasing a tad.
Lap five: Di Resta advancing up the log. He’s 16th now, which you have
to applaud him for. “We are changing plan, Paul. So stay out for the
moment,” comes the call from the Force India garage. Interesting……
Lap four: Hamilton about 1.9sec ahead of Vettell at the end of lap
four. It’s all about these two men today, isn’t it?
Lap three: Paul Di Resta is in the 17th, despite having started last
after that weighty issue in qualifying. Decent effort from him then. Webber
up to 12th after that sloppy start. He’ll still be very annoyed he’s so far
back. Hamilton clocked the fastest lap on two but you’d be a fool to write
off Vettel.
Lap two: So it’s Hamilton, Vettel, Rosberg in the top three spots.
Looks like Webber may have damage to his front left wing. “We can see
some front wing damage, it looks the same as Canada,” comes the message
on the team radio.
Lap one: Lewis Hamilton gets away well, as does Vettel. Rosberg and
Webber the big losers from that opening salvo. Rosberg overtaken by Vettel,
but Webber has dropped down all the way to 15th. Remarkable!
13.01 Lights out!
12.58 Formation lap is under way. Scorching conditions at Silverstone,
if not a little windy. Think this could be a belter. Certainly looks like
fun for the crowd.
12.55 And here are all the essentials required before lights out:
12.53 Here’s a graphic illustrating the Silverstone course:
12.50 Mr Schuester from Glee is at the F1. I think he should
lead the drivers in “mash-up” acapella sing-a-long before lights
out.
12.43 Please stand for God Save The Queen.
12.42 “So many megastars on this track,” says Eddie Jordan,
unironically. Then he nudges into Perry, who almost drops her iPad.
Top-class broadcasting.
12.41 You cannot move for vaguely famous/irritating British people
in the pits at Silverstone. Carole Vorderman and Goldie ticking both those
boxes.
12.37 More famous types at Silverstone. It’s Lleyton Hewitt and
his talented wife Bec:
12.35 Suzi Perry is to the fore on the BBC’s coverage. Do we rate her?
A decent broadcaster? Des Lynam seems
to think so:
What I find most appealing about her presentation is that she is not all
torque and technicalities. While pretty much a motorsport specialist she
keeps the broadcast understandable to technophobes like me. Her sidekicks
Eddie Jordan and David Coulthard look happy in her company as do the
competitors and their connections.
12.28 A Spice Girl has come to watch the action:
12.22 What do we all make about this Paul di Resta disqualification? He
was booted out of qualifying after his car was found to be 1.5kg
underweight. The Force India driver’s car was under the minimum weight limit
after checks were completed and the matter was referred to stewards. This
deprived him of a career-best qualifying position after his team blamed a
discrepancy in Di Resta’s weight after qualifying.
He’ll now have to start from the back of the grid. But can he still get in on
the point-scoring act from there?
12.15 Good afternoon and thanks for joining me for live coverage of
this fascinating British Grand Prix at Silverstone.
Britain’s Lewis Hamilton is the man on pole today after he produced a storming
performance around the Northamptonshire track yesterday. He went quickest in
all three sectors and finished a remarkable four-tenths of a second faster
than his Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg.
I could go on attempting to describe what happened, but it’s probably best
left to an expert. Here’s what F1 correspondent Tom Cary had
to say about it all:
For a brief moment it was like 2007 all over again; a near capacity
Silverstone crowd on their feet, rising to acclaim a home-grown talent of
thrilling speed and rich potential.
A full six years have passed since a rookie Lewis Hamilton took pole here
for McLaren, and a whole torrent of water has passed under the bridge since
that stunning debut season.
Hamilton’s temperament, maturity and lifestyle have all been called into
question. No one, however, has ever doubted the Englishman’s raw pace and he
showed it again yesterday.
A sensational lap, a full four tenths quicker than his Mercedes team-mate
Nico Rosberg, means that for the first time since that day in 2007 the
British Grand Prix will start with a home driver on pole. And how the crowd
lapped it up.