British Grand Prix 2010 Preview

British Grand Prix 2010 Preview

The British sporting summer has been and gone before anyone knew what happened. The less said about English hopes in South Africa the better and with no English representation in the men’s draw at the All English Lawn Tennis club at SW19 means even more attention is on Silverstone this weekend.

Britain have proudly sat top of the pile in F1 for the last couple of years with the past two champions, Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton, both English. The theme continues with both driving the British based McLaren car this season.

British formula one fans can rejoice further as they currently sit first and second in the championship with only six points between them. Hamilton, who leads his counterpart, finished second in Valencia but took the chequered flag in the two races previous and is bookmakers favourite to win his home Grand Prix.

He is 7/4 to win on Sunday followed by Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel at 5/2 who is third, twelve points behind the 25 year-old in the title race. The McLarens had enjoyed a return to form after a very strong start to the season by the Red Bulls of Vettel and Webber but Vettel’s win in Valencia pegged back their advantage.

Webber escaped unharmed from a spectacular crash two weeks ago and is 8/1 to claim his third win of the season. Button is also 8/1 to win his first home Grand Prix and would be the second Brit to win in the last ten years with Hamilton victorious two years ago.

The Ferrari’s, who normally improve in the second half of the season, still have a chance of a title this year with Spaniard Fernando Alonso still in contention. He is valued at 15/2 but his team mate Felipe Massa, is farther adrift at 66/1. Ferrari goes into the race weekend 83 points behind McLaren (4/5) in the constructor’s championship and are 12/1 to claim the team title with Red Bull at 5/4.

Silverstone is also the weekend where new upgrades are added to the cars. McLaren have developed a rear blown diffuser similar to the one on the Red Bull car. Testing has shown it could bring around significant improvements in lap times. Renault, Mercedes and Ferrari all installed their new diffusers last weekend and expect the their new aerodynamic package to have more noticeable enhancement this weekend.

The pack is filled with class and previous victors at Silverstone, 5 previous winners of the British Grand Prix will be on the grid this season. Sebastian Vettel won in 2009, Lewis Hamilton in 2008, Fernando Alonso in 2006, Rubens Barrichello in 2003 (150/1 to win) and the imperious Michael Schumacher winning the 1998, 2002 and 2004 grand prix (66/1 to win).

Pole position odds are similar to the race win, with Vettel 7/4, Hamilton 10/3, Webber 15/4 and Button in the sister McLaren 10. Surprisingly however, the pole sitter has only gone on to win the race three times in the last eleven years.

British motorsports fans will be pleased just to have an opportunity to see live racing as the fate of the British Grand Prix has been up in the air for the last two years. Donnington Park was due to host the race but an updated Silverstone track stepped in once it was clear Donnington could not fulfil its duties.  Silverstone signed a contract with the FIA to stage the race for the next 17 years and the 2010 race will be the first showing of the new ‘arena’ layout of circuit.

Buy British Grand Prix tickets up to that day of the race!

Recent comments on this article:

#1 Jimmy@enterF1 | 8 Jul 2010, 14:36 Reply »

as metnioned, there are plenty of reasons to be excited for this weekends race - but just to have a home grand prix at all is just brilliant after the problems with doninington!!

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• as metnioned, there are plenty of reasons to be excited for this weekends race - but just to have a home grand prix at all is just brilliant after...
  by Jimmy@enterF1
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