Silverstone 2010

This weekend the F1 circus will come to a slightly revamped Silverstone Circuit in Northamptonshire and Buckinghamshire in England (not far from Oxford)
It hosted the very first F1 race in 1950 and is an old airfield which has been transformed several times during it's long history. From the sixties almost square, dangerously fast track almost only consisting of long straights and 90 degree bends. In the early nineties it changed more towards the shape we recognize (and love) today. Well, this year premiers another alteration and the current format is this:

Pay extra attention to the Arena complex which looks promising but did catch out a couple of drivers this morning (Schumi among others). The incorporation of this complex also made the track 759 metres longer to a total of 5901 m. It now has 18 turns that will take around 1:32:3 to navigate, and the GP will stretch over 51 laps.

The first practice saw Sebastian Vettel in the Red Bull take the fastest time followed by Lewis Hamilton and Robert Kubica. Jenson Button finished way down in eight with both him and Ham trying out the new exhaust-blown diffusers (leading the exhaust under the car to help out the diffusers, similar to Red Bull)

Results after first practice here:

ESPN F1 1st practice results

Other links

Races & Circuits 2010
Crash.net