Sunday 6 July will see the most fascinating event in the British motor-racing calendar, the Formula One Grand Prix at Silverstone in Northamptonshire.
Tens of thousands of spectators will be willing Lewis Hamilton to win on residence ground, and reduce his 29 points deficit to Mercedes group mate and present planet championship leader Nico Rosberg. Hamilton won the championship in 2008.
No doubt Hamilton’s fellow Brit, Jensen Button, will also get pleasure from neighborhood support – not least from race sponsor Santander. The bank also sponsors his McLaren team, and the 2009 globe champion appears regularly in adverts for the bank’s credit card and current account products.
Lapping it up
Rosberg took the crown at Silverstone last year, and has beaten Hamilton in the last 3 races, so Hamilton will be desperate to do almost everything he can to finish ahead of the German this weekend.
Hamilton final won at Silverstone in 2008, when he lapped everybody up to third place. He said: “That has to be a single of the greatest moments of my career. I loved raising that gold trophy in front of the house crowds and I’m determined to get my hands on it once more this year.”
Silver service
Only 12 various British drivers have won their house race given that the really first planet championship Grand Prix was held at Silverstone in 1950.
The track’s racing history started right after the Second Planet War when a surplus airfield near to the village of Silverstone was earmarked as a appropriate site for a racing track.
An ex-farmer, James Wilson Brown, was employed by the Royal Automobile Club (RAC) which had arranged a a single year lease of the airfield with the Air Ministry, and offered the job of turning the airfield into a racetrack.
In just 2 months, Brown succeeded and on October 2, 1948, about 100,000 individuals turned up to see Luigi Villoresi beat 22 other competitors in his Maserati.
Royal approval
2 years later, the track played host to King George VI, the first and only time a reigning monarch has attended a British motor race.
In 1951, the British Racing Drivers’ Club took more than the lease of Silverstone from the RAC. The track was produced into a far more permanent fixture and stands had been created, giving spectators a considerably better view. Significant improvements had been produced to the track the mid-1970s, which resulted in the Woodcote corner becoming the fastest in Formula 1.
The track was overhauled in 1991 and once again in 1994, following the deaths of Senna and Ratzenberger at that year’s San Marino grand prix in Italy. The ambition was to make the course safer with out drivers having to decrease speed.
British normal
The first British winner at Silverstone was Peter Collins, who won in 1958. Tragically, he lost his life just 2 weeks later in the German Grand Prix. This was the year that Mike Hawthorn, a close friend of Collins and his Ferrari team-make became Britain’s 1st world champion.
Probably 1 of the most memorable British wins at Silverstone was when reigning Formula 1 Globe champion and crowd favourite James Hunt won in 1977 in his Marlboro McLaren-Ford M26 (remember tobacco sponsorship?).
Massa warrior
Hamilton may possibly be hoping for an equally memorable win this year but he faces stiff competitors not only from his group-mate Rosberg, but also the Williams group. Not only is this a residence race for them as well, but Felipe Massa will be producing his 200th Grand Prix start off and will be keen to accomplish a memorable outcome.
The race is of particular value to Jenson Button too, who will be sporting a pink race helmet for the weekend in memory of his father John, who died in January and utilized to put on a ‘lucky’ pink shirt on race days.
Corners and curves
Competitors will race 52 times around the 5.891km circuit and will have to negotiate high-speed corners which includes Abbey and Copse and the Maggotts, Becketts and Chapel curves.
The forecast for the weekend is hunting great, so drivers will not have to contend with a wet track.
Hamilton nevertheless, may be hoping for rain. Back in 2008, several drivers struggled to keep their automobiles on the road thanks to torrential downpours – Ferrari’s Felipe Massa spun 5 times whilst Vetter, Button and Kubica all spun off too, leaving Hamilton to promende to victory. Whoever wins on Sunday, it is bound to be a thrilling competitors.
Circuit instruction
The race itself isn’t the only entertainment for guests to Silverstone this weekend. There’s a lot to see off the track too, like a specific 50th Grand Prix parade of earlier winning Formula 1 cars, live music and air displays.
Racing legends like Sir Jackie Stewart, Nigel Mansell, Damon Hill and Alain Prost – who between them have claimed 11 Formula One victories at Silverstone – will all drive more than the weekend.
Hamilton goes for gold at Silverstone
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