Lewis Hamilton takes his fourth straight victory at Silverstone as Nico Rosberg is penalised for illegal radio instructions

The Expectations

Silverstone is home base for seven Grand Prix teams, meaning the majority of Formula 1 teams members would be able to sleep in their own beds and not in a hotel. With the British Grand Prix a complete sell-out, its festivities would be a comforting antidote to the past weeks’ Brexit worries.

Mercedes’ final qualifying advantage of one second was two-tenths greater than their Silverstone pole-winning margin from 2015. Red Bull, however, demonstrated that their tire and chassis development has made them Mercedes’ most significant challengers. While Max Verstappen joked that “it seems like those guys have a turbo button or something,” he out-qualified Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari’s leading car, by 0.5s.

The stewards announced they would impose a strict interpretation of exceeding track limitations, warning that any drivers putting all four tires across the outside line at Copse, Stowe or Club would automatically have their times deleted. Lewis Hamilton, who broke his Silverstone lap record with a 1m29.243s in Q2, had his first Q3 time deleted by the stewards by going wide at Copse. Hamilton needed to put in another lap to claim pole. Max Verstappen also his final Q3 lap dropped, but his first Q3 lap was good enough for third on the grid.