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British GP

2016 Formula 1 British GP

United Kingdom
Jul 7, 2016 to Jul 10, 2016
Silverstone, GB
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Formula 1 British GP

British Grand Prix - Race

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Hamilton leads Rosberg, Verstappen, Ricciardo, Raikkonen and Bottas. Unsurprisingly.
Green Flag
And we're away. Safety car start, so this counts as the first racing lap.
With the sky looking clear now, the question is: will the drivers go from wets to inters, or try and go straight to slicks like Hamilton did at Monaco?
Less than two minutes to go.
Rosberg said yesterday that the start was going to be his best opportunity to beat Hamilton.

I hope he had a Plan B...
Safety car
Safety car start confirmed.
Looks like the rain has all but stopped now, in fact there are some patches of blue sky overhead...
Race control reports "Low grip conditions."

No kidding.
Our man in the paddock Jon Noble has returned to the media centre looking like he has been swimming with his clothes on.
Rosberg's too, and so are the Red Bulls. The rest of the field didn't bring their canopies, it seems.
The canopies are out. The Mercedes of Hamilton is now under the roof.
Those slicks are going to have to come off. The track surface is completely soaked.
Now it's raining really hard on the grid as well, with 18 minutes to the start...
But it's getting worse...
Rain
There are parts of the track where it's raining really hard, but the rain on the grid is still not that hard.
This is going to be fascinating..
Rain
It's pouring now!
We've already been treated to some top quality action so far today at Silverstone, with both GP2 and GP3 producing closely-fought races.

In case you missed them, you can read all about those here:

GP2: King holds off Ghiotto for home sprint win

GP3: Fuoco scores maiden victory in damp race
Cloud
It's very, very windy as well.
Cloud
The cars are heading out on slick tyres as the track has dried up, but the clouds are very grey.

Air temp is 19 degrees C right now, track temp only 23.
Green lights
The pitlane is now open.
With Mercedes miles ahead of the its rivals around the British track, will we see another dramatic moment in the battle between Hamilton and Rosberg? 

Bernie Ecclestone believes that would be good for the team...

Ecclestone: Hamilton/Rosberg crashes better for Mercedes than wins
Rain
However, all that could go out the window if the British weather continues to play havoc at Silverstone. 

It has been raining hard for a significant part of the morning, and the Porsche Supercup race started behind the safety car for safety reasons.
Meanwhile, Pirelli has decided to hand down a recommended maximum number of laps for each compound for the first time, responding to the failure Vettel suffered while leading the Austrian Grand Prix.

Read all about it here:

Pirelli gives new stint length advice for British GP
At the back, Marcus Ericsson will start from the pitlane after not qualifying yesterday following his huge crash during final practice.

The Swede got the all-clear to race this morning.
Sebastian Vettel starts from 11th after having qualified sixth, the German having been handed a grid penalty following yet another gearbox change.
The race is slightly over an hour away, and this is what today's grid looks like: 

ClaDriverChassisEngineTimeGap
1  Lewis Hamilton  Mercedes Mercedes 1'29.287  
2  Nico Rosberg  Mercedes Mercedes 1'29.606 0.319
3  Max Verstappen  Red Bull TAG 1'30.313 1.026
4  Daniel Ricciardo  Red Bull TAG 1'30.618 1.331
5  Kimi Raikkonen  Ferrari Ferrari 1'30.881 1.594
6  Valtteri Bottas  Williams Mercedes 1'31.557 2.270
7  Carlos Sainz Jr.  Toro Rosso Ferrari 1'31.989 2.702
8  Nico Hulkenberg  Force India Mercedes 1'32.172 2.885
9  Fernando Alonso  McLaren Honda 1'32.343 3.056
10  Sergio Perez  Force India Mercedes 1'31.875 2.588
11  Sebastian Vettel  Ferrari Ferrari 1'31.490 2.203
12  Felipe Massa  Williams Mercedes 1'32.002 2.715
13  Romain Grosjean  Haas Ferrari 1'32.050 2.763
14  Esteban Gutierrez  Haas Ferrari 1'32.241 2.954
15  Daniil Kvyat  Toro Rosso Ferrari 1'32.306 3.019
16  Kevin Magnussen  Renault Renault 1'37.060 7.773
17  Jenson Button  McLaren Honda 1'32.788 3.501
18  Jolyon Palmer  Renault Renault 1'32.905 3.618
19  Rio Haryanto  Manor Mercedes 1'33.098 3.811
20  Pascal Wehrlein  Manor Mercedes 1'33.151 3.864
21  Felipe Nasr  Sauber Ferrari 1'33.544 4.257
   Marcus Ericsson  Sauber Ferrari    
Hello and welcome to Motorsport.com's live coverage of the British Grand Prix.

 

Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes AMG F1 W07 Hybrid
Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes AMG F1 W07 Hybrid

Photo by: XPB Images

 

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