2023 British Grand Prix - Silverstone, July 07 - 09 Sportsbook Motor Sport

[Tom]

TV Times:
Friday: First Practice - 12.30. Second Practice - 16.00.
Saturday: Third Practice - 11.30. Qualifying - 15.00
Sunday: Race - 15.00.
All sessions will be live on Sky Sports and Channel 4.

 

[Tom]

Mercedes will be strong here, always are. Similar characteristics to Catalunya where they were at their best so far this season.

Ferrari, at least Leclerc, will also be strong. Like Hamilton, this is Leclerc's best circuit.

Hard to say with Aston Martin, but I suspect they'll struggle here again.

Red Bull will be mighty and should be getting a 1-2 if Perez doesn't mess up his qualifying again.

New tyres could maybe shake things up, Ferrari seem to be hoping it'll be advantageous for them.

The forecast for the weekend is looking fairly wet but it could change, I suppose.

 

[Tom]

Quite a few changes to the circuit, some probably as a result of Zhou's and Nissany's/Hauger's accidents last year:

• The straight-ahead gravel part in the run-off in Turn 1 [Abbey] has been replaced with a 40x40m asphalt section.
• Between Turn 5 [Aintree] and Turn 6 [Brooklands] on LHS new concrete walls with FIA fence have been installed.
• At Turn 6 [Brooklands] the tyre barriers have been replaced with new tyres including new conveyor belt.
• At Turn 7 [Luffield] on LHS the gravel trap has been reduced by 5m of the track edge.
• At Turn 9 [Copse] the tyre barriers have been replaced with new tyres including new conveyor belt.
• Between Turn 13 [Becketts] and Turn 14 [Chapel] on LHS barriers realigned for approx. 260m length.
• New asphalt on LHS at exit Turn 14 [Chapel] connecting to Hangar Straight.
• The gravel trap at Turn 15 [Stowe] has been extended by 8m over a length of approx. 120m.
• At Turn 16 [the first part of the chicane at Vale] the combination kerb on LHS has been reduced by 5m.

 

[Tom]

After topping the opening practice earlier, Max Verstappen displayed remarkable speed in the second practice that was delayed due to the incident-packed Formula 2 qualifying session. The Dutchman set a 1m28.078s on Pirelli's red-walled soft tyres while his teammate Sergio Perez ended up fourth fastest, 0.264s off the pace.

Carlos Sainz put his Ferrari SF23 to P2 with his best lap only 22 thousands of a second adrift of Verstappen's benchmark. However, the Spaniard was around half a second per lap slower than the Red Bulls on his high-fuel run both on the soft and the medium compound.

Sainz's teammate Charles Leclerc had a nightmare session after a technical issue prevented him from leaving the garage for the entirety of FP2. Ferrari mechanics attempted to repair the electrical issue, but the crew were unable to complete a fix in time and instead turned their attention to Saturday's running.

Following a strong showing in the first practice, Alex Albon was once again third while his rookie team mate Logan Sargeant ended up fifth fastest as the Williams' caused a shock.

1	Max Verstappen	Red Bull Racing	1:28.078	----
2	Carlos Sainz	Ferrari	1:28.100	+0.022s
3	Alexander Albon	Williams	1:28.296	+0.218s
4	Sergio Perez	Red Bull Racing	1:28.342	+0.264s
5	Logan Sargeant	Williams	1:28.766	+0.688s
6	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin s	1:28.866	+0.788s
7	Nico Hulkenberg	Haasi	1:28.880	+0.802s
8	Pierre Gasly	Alpine	1:28.889	+0.811s
9	Oscar Piastri	Mclaren	1:28.926	+0.848s
10	Fernando Alonso	Aston Martin	1:29.134	+1.056s
11	Zhou Guanyu	Alfa Romeo	1:29.225	+1.147s
12	George Russell	Mercedes	1:29.238	+1.160s
13	Esteban Ocon	Alpine	1:29.242	+1.164s
14	Lando Norris	Mclaren	1:29.260	+1.182s
15	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1:29.283	+1.205s
16	Valtteri Bottas	Alfa Romeo	1:29.378	+1.300s
17	Kevin Magnussen	Haas	1:29.439	+1.361s
18	Yuki Tsunoda	Alphatauri	1:29.483	+1.405s
19	Nyck De Vries	Alphatauri	1:29.571	+1.493s

 

[Ginger Ted]

After missing Free Practice 2 due to a technical problem, Ferrari's Charles Leclerc bounced back in the third and final practice session to set the benchmark with a time of 1m27.419s.

Following a warm and dry opening day at Silverstone, wet conditions greeted the drivers as they returned to the track ahead of the FP3 hour, with temperatures dropping overnight and dark clouds hovering above.

Reigning world champion Max Verstappen was eighth-fastest but only ran on the medium tyres before rain hit in the final half an hour. His team mate Sergio Perez ended up down in P14, but he did not use the soft tyres either as he concentrated on heavy fuel run before the rain hit the track.

Pos.	Driver	Car	Time	Gap
1	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	1:27.419
2	Alexander Albon	Williams	1:27.592	+0.173s
3	Fernando Alonso	Aston Martin	1:27.784	+0.365s
4	Pierre Gasly	Alpine	1:27.893	+0.474s
5	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1:27.948	+0.529s
6	Carlos Sainz	Ferrari	1:27.964	+0.545s
7	Logan Sargeant	Williams	1:28.151	+0.732s
8	Max Verstappen	Red Bull Racing	1:28.266	+0.847s
9	George Russell	Mercedes	1:28.284	+0.865s
10	Yuki Tsunoda	Alphatauri	1:28.337	+0.918s
11	Nyck De Vries	Alphatauri	1:28.504	+1.085s
12	Lando Norris	McLaren	1:28.563	+1.144s
13	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin	1:28.620	+1.201s
14	Sergio Perez	Red Bull Racing	1:28.904	+1.485s
15	Kevin Magnussen	Haas	1:29.207	+1.788s
16	Esteban Ocon	Alpine	1:29.233	+1.814s
17	Oscar Piastri	McLaren	1:29.437	+2.018s
18	Valtteri Bottas	Alfa Romeo	1:29.586	+2.167s
19	Nico Hulkenberg	Haas	1:33.590	+6.171s
20	Zhou Guanyu	Alfa Romeo

 

[Dylan]

After an early damp start to qualifying, track conditions improved rapidly and saw Verstappen easily take pole position for the 5th time in a row. McLaren continued their resurgence with a splendid second for Norris and third on tomorrow's grid for Piastri.



That was a better qualifying than most recent races. McLaren looking good, very tight after Max.

 

[Snoops]

Norris says the car is still over the place in every corner in comparision with what he saw with Alonso's car, so it could be just good qualifying setup, but it's still major improvement on what they were couple of months ago.

 

[Best]

I genuinely didn't know it was possible to make the British National Anthem sound worse than normal, but that was achieved today.

 

[Franco Pinion]

Lando is going to need to get his elbows out - big style.

Lets hope he is not involved in the carnage.

 

[Son Of Jack]

Didn't watch the grid walk because it's just awkward. I see Damien Lewis committed a musical crime.