Hamilton searches for a record-breaking Silverstone victory, Ferrari’s duo are the only drivers with a 100% Q3 appearance rate and six drivers have a 100% finish rate at the track. Here’s everything you need to know about each driver’s history at the British Grand Prix!
?? Lewis Hamilton
Lewis Hamilton has excelled at his home circuit in recent years. He’s won here five times – including four times consecutively between 2014 and 2017 – and has finished on the podium eight times in total. Hamilton has a 100% finish rate at the track, with his sixteenth place finishing position in 2009 being the only time that he’s failed to score. Hamilton has taken pole six times at Silverstone, including in all of the last four seasons. He was eliminated in Q1 in 2009 – the only time that he’s failed to qualify in the top ten here. 2007, 2013 and 2018 are the only occasions that Hamilton has finished the British Grand Prix in a worse position than where he started it from. Hamilton has set the fastest lap in three of the last five British Grands Prix.
?? Valtteri Bottas
Like his team-mate, Valtteri Bottas has finished every British Grand Prix he has started. The Finn has taken two podium finishes at Silverstone, finishing as runner-up in 2014 and 2017. 2013 and 2016 are the only seasons where Bottas has not finished in the top five at the track. Bottas is yet to qualify in the top three at Silverstone. He’s qualified in fourth place in three of the last four years, with the streak being interrupted by a seventh place grid slot in 2016. Bottas has only started from fourth twice though – he was demoted to ninth on the grid in 2017. He’s yet to beat his team-mate in qualifying at the circuit since joining Mercedes in 2017. Felipe Massa is the only team-mate Bottas has out-qualified at this track, having done so in 2014 and 2016. Bottas was eliminated in Q1 in each of his first two appearances at the track. His 2014 race was particularly impressive as he gained twelve places throughout the Grand Prix. Last season marked the first time Bottas finished the British Grand Prix in the same position as he started it from.
?? Sebastian Vettel
Sebastian Vettel triumphed at last year’s British Grand Prix, taking his second victory at Silverstone. His other win here came back in 2009 with Red Bull. In addition to his two wins, Vettel has finished on the podium a further three times at the circuit. 2008 and 2013 mark the only times that the German has failed to finish the British Grand Prix, as well as the only times he’s failed to score at the track. Last year, Vettel started from the front row at the event for the first time since 2014. He’s taken two pole positions here, in 2009 and 2010. Vettel is the only driver on the grid with multiple British Grand Prix appearances to have a 100% Q3 appearance rate at Silverstone. He’s qualified in the top six in every year since 2009.
?? Charles Leclerc
In 2015, Charles Leclerc raced at Silverstone in Formula 3, where he took a win in the third race. Leclerc appeared in Free Practice 1 for the 2016 British Grand Prix with the Haas team and finished on the podium in GP3 in both races that weekend. In 2017, he won the F2 Feature Race here. His first Grand Prix appearance at the track did not go to plan, and he retired following a botched pit-stop. He had been performing well up until that point, reaching Q3 on Saturday and qualifying in ninth place.
?? Max Verstappen
From his four British Grand Prix appearances so far, Max Verstappen has recorded two top five finishes and two DNFs. His best finish here so far, and only podium finish at the track, was second place in 2016. He retired in both 2015 and 2018. Verstappen has qualified in the top five in all of the last three seasons at the British Grand Prix, with a best qualifying result of third in 2016. Carlos Sainz is the only team-mate to have out-qualified Verstappen at Silverstone, having done so in 2015. 2015 is also the only time Verstappen failed to reach Q3 at the track, while 2016 is the only time the Dutchman has finished the race in a position better than where he started it from.
?? Pierre Gasly
Pierre Gasly raced here in GP2, scoring a podium in the 2015 Sprint Race and a victory in the 2016 Feature Race. In his first F1 race here in 2018, he finished thirteenth, gaining one position from his starting position of fourteenth.
?? Daniel Ricciardo
Daniel Ricciardo made his Formula 1 debut with HRT at the 2011 British Grand Prix. The Australian has finished on the podium only once at Silverstone, in 2014 when he finished third. He’s finished fifth in each of the last two seasons. 2015 is the only occasion where Ricciardo has failed to finish the British Grand Prix, while 2011 and 2012 are the only other years where he’s failed to score. He’s reached Q3 in five of the last six seasons, but was eliminated in Q1 in 2017 as a result of mechanical issues. His best qualifying result at the track is fourth, which he scored in 2016. 2012 and 2013 are the only seasons where Ricciardo has beaten his team-mate in qualifying at the track. Ricciardo has finished the British Grand Prix in a better position than where he started it in each of the last two seasons.
?? Nico Hulkenberg
Nico Hulkenberg has scored points in all of the last six British Grands Prix. His best finish at the track is sixth, which he scored in both 2017 and 2018. Hulkenberg has a 100% finish rate at Silverstone and 2012 is the only season where he’s failed to score here. Last season marked the first time since 2013 that Hulkenberg failed to qualify in the top ten at the British Grand Prix. He’s yet to be eliminated in Q1 here. Rubens Barrichello is the only team-mate to out-qualify Hulkenberg at the British Grand Prix, doing so in 2010. Hulkenberg has out-qualified his team-mate at Silverstone in every season since then. 2014 and 2017 are the only times that Hulkenberg has failed to gain positions during a race here. His best qualifying result came in 2014, when he qualified fourth.
?? Romain Grosjean
Romain Grosjean hasn’t scored at the British Grand Prix since his first full F1 season in 2012. He’s retired from four of the last six races at Silverstone and hasn’t finished higher than where he started since his début season. Grosjean has qualified in the top ten four times at Silverstone, including in each of the last two years. In 2018 he equalled his best qualifying position at the track with eighth – though he moved up to seventh on the final grid in 2013. Last season marked only the second time that the Frenchman has been beaten by a team-mate in qualifying here.
?? Kevin Magnussen
Last year, Kevin Magnussen scored for the first time at Silverstone since 2014. His seventh place finish in 2014 remains his best finish at the British Grand Prix. He finished ninth in the 2018 event. The Dane has recorded one DNF at the circuit, in 2016. Magnussen’s best qualifying result here also came in 2014, with fifth. His seventh place on Saturday last year marked only his second top ten qualification at Silverstone. He was eliminated in Q2 in 2016 and in Q1 in 2017. 2017 is the only season where Magnussen has finished the race in a better place than where he started it.
?? Carlos Sainz
Carlos Sainz has reached the chequered flag at the British Grand Prix only once in his career. He finished eighth in 2016, but has failed to finish on all three of his other appearances. In 2016 Sainz retired with electrical issues, in 2017 he crashed with team-mate Daniil Kvyat on the opening lap of the race and in 2018 he collided with Romain Grosjean. The Spaniard has reached Q3 twice at the British Grand Prix, but not since 2016. He qualified in eighth in both 2015 and 2016, and was bumped up to seventh on the grid in the latter race. Sainz recorded his first Q1 exit here last season.
?? Lando Norris
Lando Norris has previously won at Silverstone, taking victory in the first race of the F3 meeting at the track in 2017. In 2018, Norris competed here in F2, finishing tenth in the Feature Race and taking a podium finish with third in the Sprint Race.
?? Sergio Perez
Sergio Perez has scored points in all of the last four British Grands Prix. His best finish at Silverstone is sixth place, which he scored in 2016. He has retired from the race twice; in 2012 as a result of a collision with Pastor Maldonado and in 2013 as a result of damage from a puncture. 2014 is the only other time from his eight appearances at the British Grand Prix that Perez has failed to score. Perez has qualified in the top ten at Silverstone only twice, qualifying in seventh in both 2014 and 2017. He started sixth in 2017 as the result of a grid penalty for Valtteri Bottas. 2017 is the only time that the Mexican has beaten a team-mate in qualifying at the British Grand Prix. He’s never been eliminated in Q1 here.
?? Lance Stroll
Lance Stroll is yet to score at the British Grand Prix, having finished sixteenth on his first Silverstone appearance and twelfth last season. He’s also yet to progress past Q1 at the track or beat his team-mate in qualifying.
?? Kimi Raikkonen
Between 2003 and 2007, Kimi Raikkonen took five consecutive British Grand Prix podiums, including a win in 2007. He’s also taken podium finishes in each of the last two seasons at Silverstone, both third place finishes. 2002 and 2014 are the only occasions where Raikkonen has failed to score at the track, with him retiring both times. The Finn started from pole in 2004 and has started from the front row a further three times, most recently in 2017. 2014 is the only season where Raikkonen has failed to reach the final part of qualifying at Silverstone. He was eliminated in Q1 that year. Raikkonen was not beaten by his team-mate in qualifying on all of his first ten appearances at the circuit, but Romain Grosjean ended that statistic in 2013. 2014 and 2018 are the only other times Raikkonen has been out-qualified by a team-mate at the track. Raikkonen has not finished the British Grand Prix in a better position than where he started it from since 2013.
?? Antonio Giovinazzi
Anotnio Giovinazzi took his maiden British F3 victory at Silverstone in the second race of the 2013 meeting. He went on to race here in European F3 in 2013, 2014 and 2015, taking podium finishes in all three of the races in 2015. In 2016, he competed in GP2 at the track, finishing as runner-up in the Feature Race and in fourth place in the Sprint Race. Aside from this, he also appeared in the European Le Mans Series with SMP racing at the track in 2016 finishing fifth in the LMP2 class.
?? Daniil Kvyat
Daniil Kvyat’s most recent British Grand Prix appearance is the only time that he’s failed to score at the Silverstone circuit. His 2017 race was hampered by a first lap collision with his team-mate Carlos Sainz and he finished only fifteenth. Kvyat’s best result at the track is sixth place, which he scored with Red Bull in 2015.
?? Alexander Albon
Two meetings of the F3 championship in 2015 were held at the Silverstone circuit, and in all six races Alexander Albon finished in the top six. He won here in GP3 in 2016 and after a point-less weekend at the track in F2 in 2017, the British-Thai driver won the Feature Race here last year, and came home seventh in the Sprint Race.
?? Robert Kubica
From his four appearances at Silverstone, Robert Kubica has scored only once. He finished fourth on his first outing at the British Grand Prix in 2007. It’s also the only time he’s finished the British Grand Prix in a better position than where he started it from. Since then, he’s recorded a thirteenth place finish in 2009 and two DNFs in 2008 and 2010. 2008 is the only year in which Kubica has failed to reach Q3 at the circuit, as well as the only year that he’s been beaten by a team-mate in qualifying at the track. His best qualifying position here is fifth, from 2007.
?? George Russell
In F3 in 2015, George Russell won the second race of the Silverstone meeting. He won the first of the two races in the GP3 series at the track in 2017, and finished fourth in the second. Last season, Russell finished as runner-up in both the F2 Feature and Sprint Races at the Silverstone Circuit.
