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Formula 1 British GP

British Grand Prix race day

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Today, 'God Save the Queen' is playing for the British Grand Prix rather than England's World Cup exploits. It's still coming home, but for today we'll focus on 20 drivers rather than 22 footballers. Welcome to Silverstone.
We have three cars covered by less than a tenth of a second from qualifying yesterday, with Lewis Hamilton narrowly edging the Ferraris of Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen for pole position. How will that translate into the race?
The idea of the three of them - perhaps with Valtteri Bottas as well - running in a tight pack is unlikely. This breed of Formula 1 car makes following closely very difficult - we've had drivers saying you can't follow within less than 1.8 seconds of the car ahead, and with so many high-speed corners here, the cars' aero is working incredibly hard.
And what of Red Bull? So much of this lap is spent at full throttle, with corners such as Abbey and Copse now easily flat-out, that it has become very much a power circuit. And, unfortunately, Red Bull doesn't have enough of that. Max Verstappen reckons it feels like the team are 70-80bhp down on Mercedes and Ferrari.
One thing that could throw a spanner into the works here could be the heat. It's roasting at Silverstone today, and that can play havoc with the tyres, as we saw in Austria last weekend. Perhaps the conditions will provide the variable we're hoping for to make things interesting.
The last time three cars started from the pitlane was Hungary 2014 (Maldonado, Magnussen, Hamilton).
The grid: 
1 Hamilton2 Vettel3 Raikkonen4 Bottas5 Verstappen6 Ricciardo7 Magnussen8 Grosjean9 Leclerc10 Ocon11 Hulkenberg12 Perez13 Alonso14 Gasly15 Ericsson16 Sainz17 Vandoorne
Pitlane:SirotkinStrollHartley
Hulkenberg (11th), Sainz (16th), plus pitlane starters Stroll and Hartley, are the only drivers starting the race on mediums rather than softs.
The grid is cleared of people, and Hamilton leads the field away for the formation lap.
Both Williams are at the end of pitlane with tyre blankets on, but Hartley hasn't joined them yet.
Gasly asks Toro Rosso to remind him every couple of laps to take a drink.
Hamilton slots into pole position, with the rest of the field following slowly.
Toro Rosso are readying a nose to put on Hartley's car, but it doesn't look like he'll make it out right for the start.
Disaster for Hamilton, who was slow away off the line - he's last!
Hamilton lost out to Vettel off the line, was passed by Bottas into Abbey, and then at the first braking zone Raikkonen locked up and clipped the Mercedes, sending it into a spin.
That contact sent both of the Haas cars wide, which means Hulkenberg - from 11th - is up to sixth. Leclerc is seventh ahead of Ocon.
"I think my car's broken," says Hamilton, who has got among the Williams cars.
Ricciardo was ahead of Raikkonen, but the Ferrari swept around the outside of the Red Bull into Copse to pull off a stunning move for fourth place
Vettel is streaking away from Bottas - already 2.7 seconds clear.
"Tyre pressures look fine but we're looking into it," Hamilton is told. He's just cleared Sirotkin at Copse and is up to 16th now as he begins to recover.
Raikkonen is starting to close on Verstappen. He should be able to make relatively short work of the Red Bull given the Ferrari's power advantage.
1 Vettel, 2 Bottas, 3 Verstappen, 4 Raikkonen, 5 Ricciardo, 6 Hulkenberg, 7 Leclerc, 8 Ocon, 9 Sainz, 10 Magnussen.
No joy for Hartley - he's wheeled back into the pits. Miserable weekend for the Toro Rosso driver.
Raikkonen is told "All OK on our side" by the team, which has checked the data on his car following the contact with Hamilton.
Hamilton has got ahead of Vandoorne and Ericsson and is now 14th.
Raikkonen is now all over the back of Verstappen. Surely it's a matter of time.
Another update for Hamilton: "Lewis, there might be some damage but we can't see much on the data at the moment. We're still reviewing."
Verstappen is going to make Raikkonen work for this, defending down the Wellington Straight into Brooklands.
Replays show Perez - who's running last - spun at Turn 1 at the start and narrowly avoided being collected by the Williams exiting the pits.

By: Geoff Creighton

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