2021 British Grand Prix

The **2021 British Grand Pri** was a Formula 1.5 motor race held on 18 July 2021 at the Silverstone Circuit. It was the tenth round of the 2021 Formula 1.5 World Championship.

## Background

### Affect of the COVID-19 Pandemic

This year's British Grand Prix is scheduled to be the only Formula One race at Silverstone in 2021, after the venue had held two races behind closed doors due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom during 2020. In February 2021, the organisers at Silverstone Circuit said it remained ever hopeful that it could welcome a capacity 140,000 crowd for the race but was dependent on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom, which had forced the two races held at Silverstone in 2020 to be behind closed doors. The United Kingdom government allowed fans to return to live major sporting events on 17 May 2021 in limited numbers.

On 14 June 2021, United Kingdom Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced that a planned further easing of lockdown restrictions in England would be delayed from an original date of 21 June 2021 to 19 July 2021, a delay of four weeks and the day after the Silverstone race took place. This meant Silverstone would require special exemption to gain a capacity crowd and the circuit began work with the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport to try and establish how many fans the venue would be allowed to host. On 24 June 2021, the British Grand Prix was given permission to take place with a full capacity crowd as a part of United Kingdom government's events research programme with ticket holders either required to provide evidence of negative lateral flow test carried out 48 hours before their attendance of the event or proof of double vaccination against the virus 14 days before attending the first day of the event.

On Thursday 15 July, one day prior to start of the weekend action, Lando Norris admitted in an interview to Craig Slater of Sky Sports his preparations for his home race were not ideal, stating he was "sore", "not in the perfect condition", and he was "struggling to get sleep" after he was mugged in an incident at Wembley Stadium after the UEFA Euro 2020 Final. Also on 15 July, McLaren made a statement confirming that three of their team had tested positive for COVID-19. Notably, CEO Zak Brown was one of the three who were positive. Neither of the drivers had to self-isolate and the plans for the weekend were "unaffected."

### Championship standings before the race

Following the Austrian Grand Prix, Lando Norris led the Drivers Championship from Carlos Sainz by 70 points, who leads third placed Charles Leclerc by 1 point. McLaren led Ferrari by 44 points in the Constructors Championship. Aston Martin and AlphaTauri were tied on 115 points each for third and fourth.

### Entrants

The drivers and teams were the same as the season entry list, with no additional stand-in drivers for the race.

### Tyres

Sole tyre supplier Pirelli allocated the C1, C2, and C3 compounds of tyre to be used in the race. The weekend saw the race debut of new rear-tyre construction following a successful test in practice at the previous event in Austria. The new construction is designed to improve safety, by preventing rear-tyre failures, such as those experienced by Lance Stroll at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix earlier in the season.

### Weekend Format

The 2021 British Grand Prix was the first race in the season to implement the new sprint qualifying format, there are two others expected to do the same later in the season. It was agreed after the FIA, Formula 1.5 and all 8 teams had reached a unanimous agreement, regarding the schedule of the weekend. This saw a change in the weekend format as well as the rules. Usually, Friday would host two practice sessions, one in the morning and the other in the afternoon. Saturday would have the final practice in the morning with qualifying in the afternoon. Sunday would have just one session, the 305 km race. The sprint qualifying changes this format, and on a Friday there would be one practice session in the early afternoon and a traditional qualifying (to determine the sprint qualifying starting order) in the evening. On a Saturday, the second practice would take place at noon, with a newly added sprint race happening in the afternoon. Sunday is unchanged in this format.

Changes to sporting regulations to accommodate sprint qualifying were approved by teams prior to the Austrian Grand Prix ready for approval from the FIA.

### Sprint Qualifying

The sprint qualifying is a 100 km, 17 laps for this event, race which would decide the starting order for the race on Sunday. The grid order for sprint qualifying would be decided via the normal Q1, Q2, Q3 qualifying session. The final classification of the sprint qualifying race would be the starting grid for the race. The winner of the sprint qualifying would be on pole. Additionally, sprint qualifying awards points to the top three finishers. The maximum time limit would be 90 minutes, and normal fuel flow limits would still apply. The top three in sprint qualifying would also be given a victory parade and special wreaths for their efforts.

## Practice

Free Practice 1 commenced on Friday at 14:30 BST in warm sunny conditions. Lando Norris of McLaren topped the timing sheets, 0.014 seconds ahead of Charles Leclerc who was second for Ferrari.

Free Practice 2 took place on Saturday at 12:00 BST in sunny conditions. Leclerc topped the timing sheets, 0.230 seconds ahead of Sainz. Ocon for Alpine was third, a further two tenths back.

## Qualifying

Qualifying took place on Friday at 18:00 BST. Leclerc set the fastest time in qualifying, granting him first place for sprint qualifying ahead of Norris in second and his teammate Daniel Ricciardo in third.

## Sprint Qualifying

Sprint qualifying took place on Saturday at 16:30 BST and was contested over seventeen laps. Leclerc held on to the lead going into turn one, whilst Alonso went from 7th to 2nd in the first lap. Mazepin also hit his teammate Mick Schumacher on the first lap which sent the Russian driver into a spin. The first lap caused more drama with Russell and Sainz making contact dropping Sainz down to 15th out of 16 runners, after the race Russell was given a three place penalty to his starting place for Sundays race.

## Race

The race started at 15:00 BST (14:00 UTC). Leclerc held off Norris going in to turn 1, and then overtook F1.0 driver Valtteri Bottas. Later on in the lap Leclerc then passed F1.0 champion Lewis Hamilton. Vettel lost control of his Aston Martin during a battle with Alonso on the fourth lap. This saw Vettel drop down to last; he recovered into 14th, but later retired. Kimi Räikkönen, in the Alfa Romeo, also spun, on lap 49, after a minor collision. AlphaTauri driver Pierre Gasly had a puncture late in the race, which dropped him from 7th to 9th.

## Championship Standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings

  1
  1

Constructors' Championship standings

## External Links

1. ↑  George Russell received a three-place grid penalty for causing a collision with Carlos Sainz Jr.
2. ↑ Includes one point for fastest lap