First Sprint race at British Grand Prix at Silverstone | Formula 1

It's been an exciting build-up to the British GP at Silverstone, which also happens to be the first sprint race weekend of the season with loads of sporting events culminating over the past weekend with several of them being centred at or around England. 

With all-new Sprint racing to be introduced at the British GP weekend in front of a full house, it is expected to be a cracker of a weekend. A dual race at a weekend brings its own set of excitements with it. 

It throws several new challenges for the drivers and Mechanics, like choosing the right tyre compound for the sprint, maintaining tyre & brake temperatures, fuel levels and going into qualifying without proper practice runs.

It's definitely something to cheer for the British fans especially after the EURO finals. But they would be expecting Lewis to produce something magical to beat RedBull's Max Verstappen. With Lando Norris and George Russell outperforming the car every time they go out there is what the F1 fans in general and British fans, in particular, would be expecting.

Things to Look forward to the First ever weekend with Sprint race

1. Sprint Racing - New addition to the Sport

As a fan of the sport, I am really excited for the sprint race as it allows me to witness the drivers go racing twice in the same weekend but will this format be successful only time will tell. This is something new that the FIA is trying to add a level of excitement to the weekend, which is good instead of being too conservative.

Things to know about F1 sprint racing-

• The Qualifying will take place on Friday instead of Saturday which will decide the starting grid for Saturday's Sprint race. The fasted driver in the qualifying will be given the Pirelli Speed King Award and will start on the pole for the Sprint race.
• The sprint race will decide the pecking order for Sunday's Grand Prix. The winner of the Sprint race will start on a pole on Sunday and will add 3 points to its driver standings.
• 3 points for the Sprint race winner, 2 for second and 1 for the third place.
• It will be a 100 KM long race, one-third of the actual race distance of 300 KM. It will be a 17 lap race.
• Teams and Drivers will get the tyre of their choice for the Sprint race. Which makes it even more exciting. Pirelli going with the harder part of the 5-tyre compound range with C1, C2 & C3 for the British GP at Silverstone.
• The sprint race will complete in under an hour.
• Drivers technically not banned from using the Pit stops, so if required they can go tyre change. But, given the distance and tyres of choice drivers would be expecting to finish it with the starting tyres to maximize their result. 

2. Can Hamilton close the gap between him and the championship leader Max Verstappen for the Tile Fight.

Hamilton has always been very strong at Silverstone by winning 7 times here. Subsequently, Mercedes have also been very strong around the Silverstone being their home race. Given the lack of performance, Mercedes have had this season with respect to the RedBull, it will be interesting to see how the Mercedes team and Hamilton will react to this challenge they never had before coming to        Silverstone for the past 6 or 7 years.

But there's always excitement when it comes to Silverstone and Hamilton.

Mercedes are also expected to bring the upgrades to the Silverstone but will they be enough to bring them on par with RedBull. However, as per Lewis himself, these upgrades won't be enough to catch RedBull.

With the Sprint race scheduled it will be interesting to see how Hamilton reacts to it, even though not fully convinced with the idea as per F1 Managing Director Ross Brawn.

3. Can Red Bull finally have a 1-2 finish at the British GP?

Ideally, they should have had the top two positions for most of the races this season with the car they have this season. Max is certainly making use of the upgraded package that RedBull has with a powerful Honda engine. Sergio Perez is slowly and steadily getting along with the car which is strongly built around Max Verstappen. With a win at Baku and podium finish in France he was expected to deliver similar performances going forward but a slow pit stop at Styrian GP and run in the gravel while overtaking Norris from the outside cost him a potential 1-2 finish for RedBull.

It can be expected from him to be alongside Max incoming races for sure seeing the improvements he has shown thus far.

It will be vital for Perez to get up to speed quickly as there will be only one practice session before Qualifying.

It will be interesting to see whether it will be Perez vs Bottas or Perez vs Norris in coming races as Mclaren driver is showing his class in his improved MCL35M car.

6. Expectations from McLaren

Expectations from McLaren in general and from Lando Norris, in particular, is very high given their performances this season. Lando has shown what an improved driver he is, making the most of every opportunity he got to bag 3 podiums this season, he is turning out to be the main competitor for the second drivers of RedBull and Mercedes.

Yes, it can be argued that he has been particularly good at the Austrian circuit but the way he defended against Sergio and Lewis shows he is not going to stop anytime soon.

With the Sprint racing on hands, gives opportunities to the team to shake up the pecking order for the final race on Sunday.

It will be interesting to see the McLarens strategy given now they have the driver to challenge the top teams.

They are for sure expected to finish ahead of Ferrari given the speed they have shown thus far.

The only bad news for the Mclaren going into this weekend was the news that Lando Norris was mugged after the EURO final at Wembley but luckily he escaped unharmed and we hope he comes to all guns blazing to the Silverstone. 

Schedule for the Weekend-

16th July (Friday) - Practice 1 (Local Time 14:30 to 15:30)

                                Qualifying (Local Time 18:00 to 19:00)

17th July (Saturday) - Practice 2 (Local Time 12:00 to 13:00)

                                    Sprint Race (Local Time 16:30 to 17:00)

18th July (Sunday) - Race (Local Time 15:00 to 17:00)