Jenson Button has spoken of his “excitement” this morning to be lining up at Silverstone again this season, even if the McLaren’s are back in 17th and 18th with their torrid season showing no sign of improving any time soon. Here’s the grid line-up in it’s entirety.
1. Lewis Hamilton (Britain) Mercedes
2. Nico Rosberg (Germany) Mercedes
3. Felipe Massa (Brazil) Williams-Mercedes
4. Valtteri Bottas (Finland) Williams-Mercedes
5. Kimi Raikkonen (Finland) Ferrari
6. Sebastian Vettel (Germany) Ferrari
7. Daniil Kvyat (Russia) RedBull – Renault
8. Carlos Sainz Jr (Spain) Toro Rosso – Renault
9. Nico Huelkenberg (Germany) Force India – Mercedes
10. Daniel Ricciardo (Australia) RedBull – Renault
11. Sergio Perez (Mexico) Force India – Mercedes
12. Romain Grosjean (France) Lotus – Mercedes
13. Max Verstappen (Netherlands) Toro Rosso – Renault
14. Pastor Maldonado (Venezuela) Lotus – Mercedes
15. Marcus Ericsson (Sweden) Sauber – Ferrari
16. Felipe Nasr (Brazil) Sauber – Ferrari
17. Fernando Alonso (Spain) McLaren
18. Jenson Button (Britain) McLaren
19. Will Stevens (Britain) Marussia – Ferrari
20. Roberto Merhi (Spain) Marussia – Ferrari
12.14
Our F1 correspondent Daniel Johnson has donned his weather hat to bring you the latest conditions at Silverstone.
Gloomy skies for the 140,000 crammed in here, but they’re still in high spirits. Traffic was the usual carnage on the way in to the circuit. Silverstone can be forgiven. Unlike one drunken individual who made a mess in their Lakeside hospitality on Friday afternoon. Other guests, paying as much as £1,500 for the weekend, were horrified. It was swiftly cleaned up, thank goodness.
Race day. A bit cloudy and cool, but I’m feeling good. Love seeing the support here, thank you! #TeamLH #BritishGP pic.twitter.com/PXpFYa0jjz
— Lewis Hamilton (@LewisHamilton)
July 5, 2015
12.00
Afternoon all and welcome to coverage of the British Grand Prix were Lewis Hamilton is bidding for a hat-trick of titles at Silverstone. The current world champion will have to get off to a better start than in Austria and Spain where poor getaways allowed team-mate Nico Rosberg to win two of his three races this year.
Hamilton has gone back to an old clutch setting to rectify the problem and has been practicising his starts from the pits, but nothing can emulate the start of an actual grand prix, especially one in front of your home support.
The Briton won here last time out, who are you backing to top the podium come 2.30pm-ish? Email your thoughts and predictions to me at vicki.hodges@telegraph.co.uk.
10.00
Nico Rosberg hopes the hand of history will help him beat Lewis Hamilton to the top step on the podium in today’s British Grand Prix.
Rosberg will start behind Hamilton after the Briton delighted a 110,000-strong crowd at Silverstone by claiming his eighth pole from nine races this year.
Hamilton, who leads Rosberg by 10 points in the championship heading into his home race, was 0.113 seconds faster than his Mercedes team-mate on Saturday.
But bizarrely only four of the last 20 pole-sitters have won the British Grand Prix.
And on the two occasions Hamilton has triumphed at Silverstone – in his second campaign in 2008, and again last year – it hasn’t been from the front of the grid.
Indeed Hamilton started from pole here in his debut season and again in 2013, but finished third and fourth respectively.
Informed of the statistic in his post-qualifying media briefing, Rosberg said: “That is incredible and that is why I was quite happy not to be on pole today.”
With a broad grin on his face, Rosberg, who celebrated his 30th birthday earlier this week, added: “I know those statistics and the chances are much bigger to win the race from second so I am quite pleased with that today.”
Hamilton secured his third pole at Silverstone in his first outing of the top-10 shootout. Neither he nor Rosberg improved on their laps in their final runs.
“The first lap was really good, so I was sure that I would be ahead of Lewis and I was disappointed to see that he was one tenth ahead of me,” said Rosberg.
But the German, who was fastest in both practice sessions on Friday, remains confident he can upset the home crowd on Sunday.
“This weekend was one of the biggest differences in terms of long-run pace over a practice session on Friday,” he said.
“Lewis was struggling quite a lot there so that is another hope that I have. It could be another thing which helps me.”
Vicki Hodges will be here from midday to bring you build up and live coverage