2020 British Grand Prix


The 2020 British Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held on 2 August 2020 at the Silverstone Circuit in Silverstone, United Kingdom. It was the fourth round of the Formula One World Championship. Lewis Hamilton is the defending race winner who will be aiming for his seventh British Grand Prix win in total, having won the 2019 event. It will be the seventy-first running of the British Grand Prix as part of the World Championship. The race will be the first of two consecutive Formula One races at Silverstone in 2020 with the 70th Anniversary Grand Prix due to follow a week later.

Background

Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic

The opening rounds of the championship were heavily affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Several Grands Prix were cancelled or postponed after the aborted opening round in Australia, prompting the FIA to draft a new calendar. The British Grand Prix was originally intended to be held on 19 July. When the calendar was redrafted following the pandemic the Hungarian Grand Prix and British Grand Prix had swapped dates with Hungary moving to 19 July and Silverstone taking the 2 August date, the provisional date of the Hungarian race.
Although there had been doubts over whether Silverstone would be able to host Formula One races due to quarantine measures proposed by the British government, hopes were raised again by Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who, in a statement, said that Formula One should be given an exemption. In the end, the British Government did give approval for Formula One to be held at Silverstone. The addition to the calendar of the 70th Anniversary Grand Prix on 9 August, also at Silverstone, will mark the first time in twenty-seven years the United Kingdom will host two Formula One races in the same season. The last season to have two British races in a season prior to this was the 1993 season, when Donington Park hosted the European Grand Prix and Silverstone hosted the British Grand Prix. It was later revealed that Silverstone offered to hold as many as 12 races in total during the season. Both the British Grand Prix and the 70th Anniversary Grand Prix will be held behind closed doors. Northamptonshire Police reiterated the importance of fans staying away from Silverstone for public health reasons during the two Grand Prix weekends, and warned that strict measures would be in place to stop unauthorised persons from entering the circuit.

Championship standings before the race

After the third round at the 2020 Hungarian Grand Prix, defending champion Lewis Hamilton, on 63 points, leads the championship by five points over his teammate Valtteri Bottas, with Max Verstappen a further 25 points behind. Defending Constructors' Champions Mercedes, with 121 points, lead the championship from Red Bull, who have 55. McLaren sit 14 points behind Red Bull in third, and are only one point ahead of fourth-placed Racing Point, who have 40 points, while Ferrari sit 5th on 27 points. Williams are the only team without a point, heading into the race.

Entrants

The initial driver and team race entry list was identical to the season entry list with no additional stand-in drivers for practice or the race. However, this changed following a positive SARS-2 coronavirus test for Racing Point driver Sergio Pérez who was ruled out of the Grand Prix. He was replaced by Nico Hülkenberg.

Tyre choices

Pirelli brought the C1, C2, C3 compound tyres for use in the race. However, the 70th Anniversary Grand Prix, which will also be held at Silverstone next weekend, will by contrast see the C2, C3 and C4 selection used. This aims to not only create strategic differences between the two races, but also to force the teams to fully make use of practice time on the second weekend, instead of relying on data from the previous week. The idea was instituted after the Mercedes team rejected an alternate plan, for a reverse starting grid to be run on the second weekend.

Practice

's Max Verstappen set the fastest time of the first practice session on Friday, followed by the Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton and the Racing Point of Lance Stroll. Nico Hülkenberg, in his first practice session on his return to the sport, set the ninth fastest time. During the session, Alfa Romeo's Antonio Giovinazzi spun at turn 13 and scattered gravel and tyre debris onto the track, causing the session to be red-flagged for 12 minutes whilst the track was cleared. He was investigated and later issued a warning by the race stewards for failing to safely return to the pit lane. Sebastian Vettel was unable to complete any timed laps after his Ferrari suffered an intercooler issue early in the session.
Stroll set the fastest time of the second Friday practice session, followed by the Red Bull of Alexander Albon and the Mercedes of Valtteri Bottas. This session was also red-flagged after Albon spun at turn 15 and collided with the barriers. He was taken to the circuit's medical centre but was later declared fit. Vettel was again forced to miss practice time when a pedal issue restricted his running.
Bottas set the fastest time of Saturday morning practice, followed by Hamilton and Verstappen. Albon was forced to miss most of the session with electrical issues, and Vettel continued to suffer brake pedal problems which curtailed his running on Friday.

Qualifying

Q1 and Q2

Although there was a 60% chance of rain before qualifying, all three parts would prove to be dry. In Q1, Nicholas Latifi spun on his last lap, exiting the slow turn 7 ; his earlier time was only good enough for last place. His Williams teammate George Russell was investigated by the stewards for not slowing down under the consequent yellow flags - he received a five-place grid penalty. In the end, the five drivers eliminated in Q1 were Kevin Magnussen, Antonio Giovinazzi, Kimi Räikkönen, Romain Grosjean, and Latifi - as both Giovinazzi and Raikkonen failed to make it out of Q1, Alfa Romeo remained the only team to not reach Q2 in 2020.
Two different strategies were used in Q2, with both the Mercedes, Red Bulls, Racing Points and one of the Ferraris - that of Charles Leclerc - trying to get into Q3 on the more race-suitable medium compound tyre, and the other teams using the soft compound due to the top ten qualifiers having to start on the tyre used in Q2. Early on in the session, world championship leader Lewis Hamilton spun at turn 7; red flags were soon waved, since Hamilton had brought gravel back onto the track with him. After the session resumed, Hamilton and his Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas set times a second clear of the rest of the field. Not all those using the medium tyres succeeded in reaching Q3 - Alexander Albon of Red Bull and Racing Point's replacement driver Nico Hülkenberg both failed to do so. Lance Stroll in 10th and Pierre Gasly in 11th set the same time, but since Stroll set it first, the latter in his AlphaTauri was consigned to going out in Q2. At the end of the session, the drivers eliminated were Gasly, Albon, Hulkenberg, Daniil Kvyat, and Russell.

Q3

As the cars were being sent out, there was an incident in the pitlane between Leclerc, Stroll, and Daniel Ricciardo, with Stroll complaining that Ferrari had released their driver in an unsafe manner - the stewards, after investigating the matter, decided no further action was necessary. In the first set of laps, Hamilton broke the lap record with a 1:24.616, with his teammate 0.15 seconds adrift. Hamilton then broke his own lap record a few minutes later, recording a 1:24:303 to secure pole position, and Bottas achieved second place, 0.3 seconds back. Max Verstappen, one of the last to cross the line, was third fastest, over a second behind pole position. The rest of the top 10 were: Leclerc, Lando Norris, Stroll, Carlos Sainz Jr., Ricciardo, Esteban Ocon, and Sebastian Vettel.
The pole position was Hamilton's 91st overall, and his seventh around the Silverstone circuit.

Qualifying classification

;Notes

Race classification

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;Drivers' Championship standings
;Constructors' Championship standings