Luke’s Weekend Take – British GP 2024

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British GP Qualifying: Russell Secures Pole, Hamilton Close Behind

British gp 2024

We are returning back to the historical track where it all started and what brings us together for these amazing weekends. It is the British GP at the track of Silverstone where we have seen in the past so much drama and amazing races here. This will be Round 12 of the 2024 season and it will be the halfway point throughout the season.

We see a few teams bringing some upgrades in the aim on getting closer to the front runners and keep developing their car further into the season. We also see a few drivers run a few special helmets but most notable was the 2 special liveries run by Red Bull who had a fan design on the car and Williams who had all the names of the people who work for Williams in the shape of the Union Jack.

In FP1 we see a few rookies taking onto the track in order to get some running as per the regulations as we see; Ollie Bearman driving instead of Kevin Magnussen after his news was announced that he will be taking a full time seat at Haas in 2025, Jack Doohan took Pierre Gasly’s seat for FP1, Franco Colapinto replaced Logan Sargeant and Isack Hadjar took Sergio Perez’s spot in FP1.

Soon after the session started, we hear Lance Stroll on the radio saying that his brake pedal was feeling long, and he thinks that he had a Brake by Wire issue and he came back into the pits to have this sorted out as otherwise it would have been a big issue for him round Silverstone. Few minutes later in FP1 we see the first outing of the Red Flag as we see Yuki Tsunoda beached on the gravel at Luffield, this happened as while going round slowly, Tsunoda seems to have lost the rear and gets onto the gravel and beaches his VCARB car. The session quickly restarted after the car was cleared off the track and everyone got going again to get their running in for FP1. Towards the end of FP1 we see Oscar Piastri driving round very slowly as he mentions that he has had a hydraulic failure and he manages to get in the Pit Entry but the car came to a stop mid-way back into the pits, the pitlane entry was closed until the car was cleared and this was quickly done as the Marshalls just had to push the car further in.

We see a very close call between Lando Norris and Isack Hadjar around Abbey as Norris was on a fast lap, and he found Hadjar in the middle of the racing line and had to take massive evasive actions as he locks up the brakes and wrestles the car to keep it on track. Hadjar immediately apologises to Norris as he claims that he couldn’t see him and therefor didn’t get out of the way. There was also a different incident with Lance Stroll impeding Charles Leclerc in Maggots. Both these incidents got noted by the stewards and will be investigated after the session. At the end of the session we see Lando Norris topping the charts followed by Lance Stroll and Oscar Piastri for FP1. After the stewards investigation, both Hadjar and Stroll were fined for the impeding in FP1 as Red Bull get fined €20K while Aston Martin get fined €15K for the impeding.

At the start of FP2 we get an announcement that Pierre Gasly will be taking a Power Unit penalty as he takes a number of new components for his engine so will be starting on the back on Sunday. 10 minutes into FP2 we hear Charles Leclerc on the radio saying that he is struggling a lot on high speed corners and was asking his engineer if he could see how tricky it is, and tricky it seemed as Leclerc seemed to be fighting the car most of the time on high speed corners. Towards the middle of the session it was the McLarens at the top as Norris was once more on top followed closely by Oscar Piastri as everyone was having to amend their running plans as rain was predicted to come towards the end of FP2. And the radio messages warnings started coming in to drivers with 23 minutes left of the session and Lando’s engineer was advising him that when the rain does come it will be quite heavy and that they won’t be taking any risks. As predicted with 5 minutes left we do see the rain start coming down and everyone decides to get back in the pits and not risk anything. The session ended and Lando once more tops the charts in Free Practice followed by Oscar Piastri and Sergio Perez.

Mercedes Front Row Lockout at Silverstone

Heading now into the Saturday sessions and onto the last Free Practice the teams will be getting ahead of Qualifying and the race. There was no rain coming down, but the track is damp so inters were required to start the session. Pierre Gasly who was one of the drivers who probably needed every minute of free practice manages to spin the car on the last chicane and beaches his car bringing out the Red Flag 8 minutes into the session and that was the end of FP3 for Gasly. During the Red Flag we see Daniel Ricciardo enter the pits and starts heavily swerving in the pitlane which the stewards were not so happy with as this was noted and was to be investigated after the session. Once the session restarted, we see drivers getting back to it and all teams tried to get as much running as they could. 20 mins in when the track was still drying, we see Valtteri Bottas have a bit of a Spin as well but manages to keep it out of any gravel and barriers and gets back going again. The rest of the session went all as expected and we see an all Brit line up on the top 3 as we see George Russell topping the leaderboard, followed by his teammate Lewis Hamilton and Lando Norris forming the top 3 which was very welcomed by the fans.

Into qualifying now and again it starts on a damp track as between FP3 and qualifying it rained a bit so all drivers had to start on intermediates, it wasn’t long however before we hear Bottas come on the radio saying that there is a dry line already forming which meant that it wasn’t long until we would see the slick tyres on track. And with 9 minutes left on in Q1 we do see drivers get into the pits to get rid of the green striped inters and get onto the red striped softs. It wasn’t long however until we saw the Red Flag come back out as we see Sergio Perez go off at Copse Corner and beaches his Red Bull on the gravel. Perez was asking the ream to get the Marshalls to push him to the tarmac so he can get going again but this was not possible as the regulations state, that you can’t get any outside help to get going again and eventually gets out of the car.

While under the Red Flag, the threat of rain was increasing, and we see a lot of the drivers starting to queue at the end of the pitlane to ensure they get a good position to put a lap down and make it through Q1. The session restarts and we do see some drops of rain come down which made Copse corner fairly tricky as we see the reigning world champion go off as well but manages to find the escape road and get back going while we also see Kevin Magnussen do the same as Max Verstappen and get going again. At the end of Q1 we end up losing Valtteri Bottas, Kevin Magnussen, Esteban Ocon, Sergio Perez and Pierre Gasly. Ocon was not one bit impressed with his team as we hear him on the radio saying that the only push lap, he had a chance of doing was when the track was wet, alluding to that being the reason he was out in Q1.

Q2 was fully dry at this point, and it was no question about tyre choices, and everyone was out on the softs, however Q2 wasn’t as straight forward as you would have expected as we see some big names dancing around the elimination zone towards the end of Q2. In the end we end up losing Charles Leclerc, Logan Sargeant, Yuki Tsunoda, Zhou Guanyu and Daniel Ricciardo as Leclerc couldn’t find the pace to get out of Q2 and Lance Stroll was able to get a better time than Leclerc.

In Q3 we get the Top 10 fighting for pole position in order to get the best chance on Sunday to win the race, after the initial runs we see George Russell take provisional pole position followed by Lando Norris and Lewis Hamilton. And after the final runs we see Hamilton get close, but George Russell secures pole position followed by his teammate Lewis Hamilton making it a front row lockout for Mercedes, then came Lando Norris, Max Verstappen, Oscar Piastri, Nico Hulkenberg, Carlos Sainz, Lance Stroll, Alex Albon and Fernando Alonso forming the Top 10. It is worth noting that we haven’t had the Top 3 being British drivers since 1968 which was a great achievement, and the fans were loving the fact that it is a Top 3 Brits for the British F1. Can’t not praise Hulkenberg as well who manages to qualify in 6th place ahead of a Ferrari as well in his Haas.

Who do you think will be able to come out on top tomorrow in the race? Will Russell and Hamilton be able to hold Norris off and get another win for Mercedes for the 2nd week running? Tune in for the post-race review to find out.

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