Ferrari's Carlos Sainz won the British Grand Prix from pole position, but it was far from easy. An early heavy crash and a late safety car resulted in a tense race that saw Perez take his opportunity for second as Hamilton pleased the home crowd with a third-place result.
Way we had the british weather up in north east has been short hard showers in isolated cells.
Looking at the band of rain tracking up from devon/cornwall, id expect some rain today on track
I'm a few miles from the circuit and there is some rain in the air. Heavy overcast, gusty winds and, as I type I can feel the occasional drop of rain.
Whether this develops in the next couple of hours into full rain, I obviously can't say. But if I was a betting man, I'd pit a fiver on there being some rain/drizzle before/during qualifying.
The race is likely to be dry.
If you are more fortunate than others, build a larger table not a taller fence.
Sainz with a bit of bouncing through abbey @291kmh.
Lewis with a bit of bouncing through abbey at slightly faster @298kmh.. which continues slightly through Farm curve.
Max no bouncing at 296kmh
All are within 1-2kmh of each other at the DRS line onto the straight.
Taking the 100m board they are Sainz 312kmh, Lewis 309kmh and Max at 315kmh (granted a little hard to reference the Max board due to onboard position.
At the point of braking the Ferrari is at 310kmh, Lewis at 309kmh and Max at 314kmh. Quite a bit speed difference there for the Red bull.
At the old start/finish line before Copse, the speed looks to be. Sainz at 288kmh, Lewis at 286kmh and Max at 284kmh.
Going into Copse...
Sainz is around 60-70% throttle but with the brake , presumably to keep the balance of the car level without either lifting off, braking, or accelerating and being too fast. Quite a lot of bouncing as soon as he puts some right steering in
Lewis has started to bounce before any steering input as soon at the 150m marker. He chooses to lift off for the corner rather than the technique of Sainz of trail braking.
Max choses to lift slightly, with no bouncing and looks to have the best exit to the corner by not running as wide.
I think the Ferrari and Merc will struggle a bit more with this corner than Red Bull given a little bit extra speed in Qualifying. Running wide is going to be a issue here especially with track limits as drivers push.
Sainz bouncing seems to continue bouncing on the way up to Maggotts, which continues through the corner all the way into lifting off for Becketts.
Lewis's car controls the bouncing on the exit of Copse but starts to bounce as soon as puts the left hander into Maggotts and continues about the same as Sainz into the braking for Becketts.
As with the rest of the lap, Max's car seems to take the corners a lot better than the other 2, and seems to run more full throttle, maybe a fraction more than Lewis before lifting into Becketts. Sainz doing the trail braking again riding both throttle and light braking. Quick look at the telemetry Max also carries a lot more speed through Maggotts.
50m board into Stowe both the Merc and Ferrari are at 313kmh, bit more speed for Max at 317kmh as he touches the brakes.
Both the Ferrari and Merc bottom out entering stowe. Ferrari seem to be once bounce/hit and the merc a few more.
Nothing really much to note from the remainder of the lap without going into the micro details.
Overall I think the RB will have a bit more pace come qualifying, especially if they can sort out the understeer/oversteer balance in the car like the drivers mentioned after FP2. The bouncing through the high speed corners is going to be the downfall for the Fer/Merc if the drivers struggle with feel of the car and grip in the high speed corners. Without looking at the telemetry Dialtone posted in too much detail, the RB looks to have a little speed advantage come the end of the straights.
