Aand welcome to our live coverage for the first and second practice at the 2022 British Grand Prix at Silverstone. This is normally one of the races of the year and an excellent and challenging track for both the drivers and hopefully will also be a test of the new regulated cars. It’s a shame, though, that little of the pre-race talk on such a historic track as this was about the current track action.
Unfortunately, the story was dominated by comments Nelson Piquet made about Lewis Hamilton late last year, which have resurfaced. Without going into too much detail, you can read the latest on that sad saga here. The whole F1 – or pretty much – has gathered and supported Hamilton, which is only good. And Piquet has been banned from the paddock for his comments.
Back to track stuff and this race feels like a crucial race for the championship. It seems a long time ago that two DNFs put Max Verstappen in a difficult position in the championship, more than 40 points behind Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc. However, since Melbourne (Leclerc’s last win), Ferrari has failed on almost every occasion. They were quick in qualifying, but due to reliability issues and drivers mistakes, Leclerc now has a 40-point lead over Verstappen and with Red Bull the faster car.
Yes, it is a long season and there are still many races to go. Red Bull has also had some reliability issues, but with four races in the next five weeks before the summer break, July will either be the month when Ferrari fell out of the fray completely, or where they got themselves back in line. Let’s hope for the latter.
There is also a bit of hope around a Mercedes revival, which would be nice with two British drivers. I don’t see them fighting for the win, but a podium finish could be a possibility. Hopefully the smoother circuit will lessen their bouncing issues.
The first practice starts at 1pm BST and the second practice starts at 4pm which is an extremely late time for me to finish on a Friday. But that’s where we are.