2012 British Grand Prix

Championship standings

Alonso leads the championship on 111 points after Valencia. Webber is second on 91, Hamilton third on 88, Vettel fourth on 85, and Rosberg fifth on 75. Alonso’s lead has grown from three points to 20 in a single race.

Previous race

Alonso won in Valencia with Räikkönen second and Schumacher third — Schumacher’s first podium since the 2012 season regulations restored the age limit waiver. The result extended Alonso’s championship advantage significantly; Vettel finished seventh and Hamilton retired.

Between-race developments

Marussia test driver María de Villota was seriously injured during an aerodynamic testing run at Duxford Aerodrome in the week before this race. She struck the rear of a support truck at low speed, sustaining skull fractures and losing her right eye.

Penalties

Vergne carries a ten-place grid penalty for causing an avoidable collision with Kovalainen at the European Grand Prix. Kobayashi has a five-place penalty for a similar incident with Massa at Valencia.

Entrants

Clos replaces Karthikeyan at HRT for first practice. Bottas takes Senna’s Williams seat and Bianchi drives for Force India (replacing Hülkenberg) in FP1. Caterham and Marussia both bring significant upgrades — Marussia describes their package as their “first proper wind-tunnel-generated update” after beginning the season with only computational fluid dynamics.

Tyre choices

Pirelli brings the silver-banded hard compound as the prime and yellow-banded soft as the option — the same specification as the 2011 British Grand Prix.

Practice

FP1 was wet throughout. Grosjean set the fastest time ahead of Ricciardo and Hamilton. Alonso, di Resta, and Bianchi did not set lap times in the difficult conditions.

FP2 also ran in wet conditions, limiting competitive running as teams preserved their tyre allocation. Hamilton was fastest from Kobayashi and Schumacher. Senna hit standing water at Becketts, spun heavily into the barriers, and triggered a red flag. Alonso also spun and hit the wall but returned to the pits.

FP3 ran dry. Alonso was fastest overall. Pic stopped on-circuit twice, requiring marshals to retrieve his car.

Weather

Dry conditions are forecast for race day — 20°C air temperature, 31°C track.