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F1 British GP Live Commentary and Updates - Race day
Updates on the Formula 1 British Grand Prix at Silverstone
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Max Verstappen extended his lead in the F1 world drivers’ championship to 46 points with victory at the Canadian GP last time out, as Red Bull team-mate Sergio Perez failed to finish and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc recovered to fifth place after a back of the grid penalty for an engine change.
A number of teams have delivered car upgrades ahead of the Silverstone round, which is set to play out in front of a sold-out crowd.
Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton won the British GP last year, following a controversial first-corner clash with Verstappen.
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Pit stop
Sainz pits from the lead, trading his mediums for a set of fresh hards on lap 21, and the Spaniard comes back out in third place, right in front of Norris.
Perez is into the points now in P10 as Latifi, who sitting P8, and Schumacher from P11 pit.
Verstappen, in the injured Red Bull, remains in sixth place, 10s behind Alonso and his pace is slower than the Alpine.
What's more, Hamilton is closing the gap on both Ferraris, as he cuts the gap to Leclerc to 3.2s. Sainz has been given the hurry up over team radio.
A charging Perez continues to make progress. The Red Bull driver is up to P13 and is now behind the two Haas entries of Schumacher and Magnussen.
Ferrari has a dilemma on its hands. Sainz is told his target lap time is 1m32.9s but he is four-tenths of a second off that. Leclerc is asking for a way past as he feels he can go faster.
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"What do I need to do?" Leclerc asks his Ferrari team. He's keeping pace with Sainz, but is carrying front wing damage after clashing with Perez earlier.
So, Sainz leads but Leclerc is within DRS behind in a Ferrari 1-2 and Hamilton is third just 4.2s behind.
Verstappen has picked up bodywork damage, he is told it is not critical but he will suffer a performance drop. He is currently one second per lap slower than the frontrunners in sixth place.
Tsunoda has been handed a five second penalty for causing a collision with Gasly.
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"Something is not right, check the rear," Verstappen reports over team radio. "The car is 100% broken."
Perez climbs to P15, he manages to get by a recovering Tsunoda.
Pit stop
Verstappen reports he hit some debris at Copse and then slowed dramatically. The Red Bull driver pitted for fresh mediums and comes back out in sixth place.
Nightmare for AlphaTauri! Both drivers were in the points. Gasly down to P13 with Tsunoda in P15 after the clash. Rule one: Never make contact with your team-mate.
Pit stop
Verstappen has a puncture and pits at the end of lap 12! Sainz leads again! This race!
The AlphaTauri pair of Tsunoda and Gasly have collided heading into the Loop! They both spin. Ocon moves up to P7 with Latifi P8. Bottas and Ricciardo move into the points now.
So that was made pretty easy for Verstappen, who now leads by 1.3s at the end of lap 11. Leclerc is all over the rear of Sainz in the fight for second now.
Meanwhile, Perez is on a charge and posts the fastest lap with a 1m33.362s. The Mexican driver is sitting in P16 after damaging his front wing, which required a pit stop.
Sainz goes wide! He goes off at Becketts and takes to the grass, which allows Verstappen to sweep by and take the lead on the Hangar Straight.
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"He's a bit quicker," Sainz says over Ferrari team radio, as Verstappen closes to 0.6s behind. He's in the hunt.
FIA update on the lap 1 crash: Two drivers involved in the incident at the start of the race were checked in the medical centre. There were no major injuries. The driver of Car 24 (Zhou) is under observation in the medical centre. The driver of Car 23 (Albon) will be transferred by helicopter to Coventry Hospital for precautionary checks.
The driver of Car 63 (Russell) was checked by medical staff and was declared fit.
Verstappen duly gets DRS and is closing in on the leader. Both are on mediums after changes during the red flag, so no tyre advantage either way.
Perez's unscheduled pit stop has put him to the rear of the field in P17. It could be a long afternoon from there for the Red Bull driver. However, he has already made a spot with a move on Vettel.
Sainz leads Verstappen by 1.0s at the start of lap eight, meaning the Red Bull driver is edging towards DRS range.
The Verstappen vs Leclerc clash will not be investigated by the stewards, while Ferrari have reported front wing damage for their driver too.
Perez's pit stop means Alonso sits P6 ahead of Gasly, Tsunoda, Ocon and Latifi is now back in the points for Williams.
Alonso has put his Alpine ahead of Gasly for P6 as Perez comes in for a service.
Hamilton dives by Norris into Brooklands on lap six to take fourth place.
Pit stop
Perez pits at the end of lap five due to his front wing damage which releases Norris into fourth and Hamilton into fifth.
DRS is enabled for the first time in this race, but Sainz is already over a second ahead of Verstappen. Perez's front wing damage is hurting his pace and he's being caught up Norris and Hamilton.
It all settles down for the rest of the lap, Perez has front wing damage from that clash with Leclerc. Sainz leads from Verstappen, Leclerc and Perez. Norris is fifth from Hamilton.
Alonso challenges Gasly for P7 but the latter hangs on. Tsunoda sits in P9 and Ocon moves into the final points position in P10.
Leclerc and Perez bash wheels on the charge on to the Wellington straight, with Sainz leading Verstappen ahead of them, and then Leclerc makes a wheel-on-wheel contact with Verstappen at Brooklands. What a restart lap!
Lights green
Sainz keeps the lead this time but is super aggressive, pushing Verstappen towards the pitwall and over the kerbs at the first turn. That invites Perez and Leclerc to fight for the lead!
Sainz, on pole, takes his place on the grid with the rest lining up behind him. Here. we. go. again.
The cars are on the track behind the safety car, which will peel into the pits ahead of the standing start.
Russell also says he stopped the car jumped out to see if Zhou was ok and when he returned the car was on the back of the lorry. The Mercedes driver is frustrated that he is unable rejoin the race as his car only had a puncture. The rules state a car has to reach Safety Car 2 line under its on steam to be able to rejoin the race in this situation.
It will be a standing start for the restart.
Quick reminder on where we are at: The British GP will restart on lap 2 of 52, with Russell, Albon and Zhou out of the race. The race time clock stopped with 1hr59m39s left at the red flag, but the time limit will end the race at 6pm local time if that arrives first.
Russell says he had no grip on the hard tyres at the start and got swamped. He says once contact was made with Zhou, "that was it".
By: autosport.com
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