Formula One championship leader Max Verstappen set the fastest time,1 minute 29.902sec, in the second and final free practice session of the British Grand Prix, at Silverstone on Saturday.
FP2 – DONE!
Next up… #F1Sprint 🙌 (Lights out 15:30 UTC)#BritishGP 🇬🇧 #F1 pic.twitter.com/vJuF7gEj7I
— Formula 1 (@F1) July 17, 2021
In Austria, he cruised to a third successive victory race in Austria.
This was a fifth in a row for Red Bull Racing-Honda opening up his lead over Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton at the top of the Drivers’ Championship to 32 points.
In the Constructors’ Championship, Red Bull hold a 44-point advantage over their nearest chasers.
Viewers on DStv can look forward to the 10th round of the 2021 Formula 1 World Championship, the British Grand Prix, live from Silverstone Circuit in Northamptonshire Sunday 18 July 2021.
Mercedes will be desperate to break Red Bull’s recent stranglehold, with Silverstone traditionally a happy hunting ground for the German team and Hamilton in particular. The ‘Silver Arrows’ have won seven of the last eight British Grands Prix, with six of those victories secured by Hamilton.
Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff has claimed that his team will bounce back to form in Northamptonshire: “The result looks, I think, worse in terms of pace than we were,” he explained after the Austrian GP earlier this month.
“We were stuck behind the McLaren and I think in pace we probably could have been there [with the Red Bulls] – maybe not enough to win the race but right there, which is a step forward. Overall, I think damage limitation may be. I think we will go to Silverstone and blow everybody away, finish one and two, 30 seconds in advance of everybody else.”
Verstappen, meanwhile, has urged Red Bull to keep up the level of performance which has seen them become the favourites in both Championships.
“I’m enjoying it, but I’m also focused on the rest of the season. It is still so long and there are still a lot of points you need to score. We need to make sure that every single weekend we are back up there and we basically use the whole potential of the car,” said the Dutchman.
“I think it was just very dominant, but we have to make sure that in Silverstone we are there again and that’s what we will look into now again to make sure we are very competitive there.”
Further down the grid, McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo has continued to struggle compared to teammate Lando Norris, who is an impressive fourth in the Drivers’ standings, but can at least take heart from a strong midfield performance in Austria.
“I don’t want to be too extreme and be the guy that when everything goes well you’re super-cool and nice and when it doesn’t, you hate everybody. I’m trying to stay a little more level,” said the Australian.
“I enjoyed the race, I think that was important. I had fun and it sounds so basic but sometimes it’s the most important – you just want to be enjoying it out there and obviously, when you don’t have good days or successful days it is hard to enjoy it. So just having a day like today and having some battles and just keeping a race with a lot of pressure, I think that kept me occupied and meant I enjoyed it more.”
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British Grand Prix broadcast details, 18 July 2021
Sunday 18 July
16:05: Race – LIVE on SuperSport Motorsport and SuperSport Maximo 1
