British Grand Prix – live! | Alan Gardner

• Hit F5 to refresh or turn on the automatic widget below • Email your thoughts to alan.gardner.casual@guardian.co.uk • Check out Heikki Kovalainen’s interactive guide to Silverstone 12.59pm: Right, the entourages are scurrying off the track – we are about to go! go! go! 12.56pm: I’m intimately acquainted with the Silverstone track due to my experience playing TOCA Touring Cars on the PlayStation in the late 1990s – but, they’ve made some recent alterations, so Heikki Kovalainen’s interactive guide is a recommended read. 12.45pm: BBC shenanigans thus far: Water skiing with Button and Hamilton (Button twisted his knee and almost jeopardised his race); interviewing Prince Harry – who is about eight feet taller than Bernie Ecclestone; talking to Patrick Stewart, who claims if you were going to be run over by anyone “the world champion [Vettel] would be a good place to start”. Ah, the glitz and glamour. Anyway, according to Di Resta and Button, half the track is soaked and the other half isn’t – I wonder if anyone will go with two wet tyres and two dry? They’re about to play the national anthem, which is my cue to go refuel on the black stuff (nothing like a cup of petrol to open your eyes in the morning). The race starts in 15 minutes. Don’t go away! 12.38pm: Today’s pole sitter/No2 driver (and last year’s winner). 12.34pm: Weather report, with Twitter’s Giles Richards : Proper raining at copse now woohoo! #f1 #britishgp #motorsport #silverstone Good news for the McLarens, that. Like proper Brits, they’re only truly comfortable in wet, miserable conditions. 12.31pm: The final word on off-throttle blown diffusers, from Mark Webber: “It’s nonsense. Nobody really understands it. We don’t know what’s going on. It’s very boring for the fans. I am sure only 0.1 percent of the fans [and journalists] understand what’s going on.” I think that settles it, don’t you? Preamble: Morning all, welcome to lap-by-lap, brrrrm-by-brrrrm, crash-by-etcandsoon coverage of the British Grand Prix at Silverstone. Mark Webber is on pole, as part of a Red and Bullish front row that includes the reigning champion, current drivers’ standings leader and all-round F1 uber-driver, Sebastian Vettel. Chances of a British race winner look on the skinny decaf side, with Jenson Button’s McLaren parked fifth on the grid, five places ahead of his team-mate, Anger Management’s Lewis Hamilton. Rumours that Hamilton blew his top in the paddock this morning after being charged 85p for a can of coke are as yet unconfirmed. For today’s Plucky Brit In With An Outside Chance Of Podium Glory (aka. The Johnny Herbert Award), keep an eye out on Force India’s Paul di Resta, who starts in sixth. Now, shall we do this? British Grand Prix Formula One Motor sport Alan Gardner guardian.co.uk

Posted by on July 10, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.