2015 British Grand Prix preview

Nino Farina in his Alfa Romeo. Silverstone 1950.

Silverstone is one of the most legendary F1 tracks in the calendar. Did you know that the whole F1 series started back in 1950 at Silverstone? That's why this circuit is so important!

In the first GP Giuseppe "Nino" Farina won from pole position also setting the fastest lap of the race (1'50.600). The current lap record is from last year by Mark Webber 1'33.401. The track has changed several times so it's hard to compare.

So what happened last year in the previous Silverstone race?

Some of you readers said that it was a boring race but I disagree. Silverstone has many times showed us that the track is not only a classic but gives us interesting races.

Right at the start my eyes was on the two Ferraris and two Williams's. Kimi Räikkönen overtook several cars including his teammate Fernando Alonso. Felipe Massa had a terrible start and dropped to 21st. Valtteri Bottas start was awesome! He jumped up to 9th position.

Kimi was fighting very aggressively and when Alonso came next to him he went off right away. Then when he tried to come back on track he lost control of the car and had a 47G crash. That is a very hard crash! Felipe Massa was at the wrong place at the wrong time and got hit by Kimi's car.

The first thing Kimi asked on the radio was "is Felipe ok?" and Massa asked Williams the same thing about Kimi. Two former teammates still caring for each other. That's nice.

Then they fixed the barrier for 1 hour! What the hell was that?! In Monaco they fix barriers in 5 minutes! A bit weird if you ask me. Didn't they practice situations like this or what was the problem? At least we got news from Ferrari that Kimi is OK.

Then after 1 hour they continued racing and the McLarens were 2nd and 3rd at best but what happened then? Why couldn't they hold the positions? It was almost like they had vanished from the race. OK it was probably hard to keep up with Hamilton and Bottas who were extremely fast. Button was 4th in the end so it was the best possible result for McLaren I guess.

Mercedes had technical problems again and Nico Rosberg retired. Lewis Hamilton got 25 points more than Rosberg from Silverstone. 

What else happened in the 2014 Silverstone race? Fernando Alonso and Sebastian Vettel had a nice battle for positions but why did they have to complain and cry so much about every single move they did? Remember the situation? Is it because they are both used to be the number 1 driver in the team and get grumpy when the better driver doesn't let you pass? I don't know the answer to that, I was just saying.

Everybody was so interested of the Alonso vs. Vettel battle that nobody noticed that Daniel Ricciardo was higher up and kicked both of their asses again! In my opinion Bottas and Ricciardo are the future of F1.

Here are my predictions for this year's Grand Prix at Silverstone:

Pole position: Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes

The race:

1. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes
2. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes
3. Valtteri Bottas, Williams

Fastest lap: Nico Rosberg, Mercedes

Surprise: McLaren might get some more points in Silverstone.

First to crash: Pastor Maldonado, Lotus

Remember to post your own predictions to our F1-4-LIFE PREDICTORS LEAGUE.

POINTS: 1st - 3
2nd - 5
3rd - 10

+ possible bonus points

HOW IT WORKS: the aim of the game is simply predict who comes where in the race (top3). A total of 18 points can be won on a race day. For example if you get winner and and 3rd place right but 2nd wrong you get 13 points.

HOW TO SUBMIT YOUR PREDICTIONS: send an email to f14lifeblog@gmail.com or message the Facebook page to submit your predictions. You have until lights out to make them. If you submit them when the race has started they won't count. So be quick!

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