2021 British Grand Prix

Championship standings

Verstappen leads Hamilton by 32 points. Red Bull lead the Constructors’ by 44 points over Mercedes.

Previous race

At the Austrian Grand Prix, Verstappen won from Bottas and Norris. Hamilton finished fourth after sustaining damage to the underside of his car, extending Verstappen’s championship lead to 32 points. Pérez received two five-second penalties for forcing Leclerc off track on two separate occasions.

Sprint format

This is the first Formula One race to use the sprint qualifying format. Friday features one practice session followed by a traditional qualifying to set the sprint grid. Saturday’s sprint is a 17-lap, 100 km race whose result determines the starting grid for Sunday’s Grand Prix. Points are awarded to the top three sprint finishers: three for first, two for second, one for third. The top three also received victory wreaths. At sprint weekends, the parc fermé begins after Friday qualifying — drivers are free to choose any tyre for Sunday’s race, and there is no requirement to pit during the sprint. This is the first time since the 1959 German Grand Prix at AVUS that a Formula One meeting has included more than one race for Grand Prix cars.

Milestones

Hamilton has won the British Grand Prix seven times previously, first in 2008, and goes for a record-breaking eighth victory at his home race.

Tyre choices

Pirelli brings the C1, C2, and C3 compounds. The weekend also sees the debut of a new rear-tyre construction designed to prevent failures of the type experienced by Stroll and Verstappen at Baku — the new construction was successfully tested in practice at the Austrian Grand Prix.

Practice

Verstappen topped FP1, 0.779 seconds ahead of Norris in second, with Hamilton third just 0.001 seconds behind Norris. Verstappen topped FP2 as well, 0.375 seconds ahead of Leclerc, with Sainz third. Neither session had major incidents.