2010 British Grand Prix

The 2010 British Grand Prix is a scheduled race on the 2010 Formula One season calendar. On 7 December 2009, it was confirmed that the race would take place at Silverstone for the next seventeen years after the failure of Donington Park to raise the necessary funds to hold the race. The race is scheduled to occur on July 11, the same day as the 2010 FIFA World Cup final.

When the new layout was complete, speculation arose of Silverstone becoming the fastest track on the calendar, a record currently held by Monza. A speed increase of 8% per lap would be required to take this record, however Autosport magazine observed that the British Formula Three drivers could only manage 1% faster than the previous average speeds, making this unlikely. It is however, set to overtake the Spa-Francorchamps circuit as the second fastest circuit on the F1 calendar.

Race location
The 2009 British Grand Prix was due to be the last held at the Silverstone Circuit. Donington Park was due to hold the race from 2010 but due to financial problems was unable to find the money to redevelop its circuit. On 29 October 2009 Bernie Ecclestone confirmed that there will be no British Grand Prix at Donington Park. Silverstone subsequently signed a 17 year deal to hold the race from 2010 onwards. Under this deal, the pit lane and paddock will be redeveloped with work starting as soon as possible after Christmas 2009 to be completed in 2011. The track layout for the race will feature a new complex of corners known as the "Arena" layout. The new corners have been named Abbey, Farm, Village, The Loop, Aintree and the Wellington Straight.

Background
Sakon Yamamoto returned to a race seat after Hispania Racing decided to drop Bruno Senna in favour of the former Super Aguri and Spyker driver for reasons that remained undisclosed as the weekend began. Team principal Colin Kolles claimed that the switch was not related to sponsorship; the only new sponsor for the team was the Jaypee Group, owners of the new Jaypee Group Circuit in India, and attracted to the team by Karun Chandhok. Senna refused to speak on the subject, whilst Yamamoto claimed he would "talk" to the Brazilian driver, prompting speculation that the team was experiencing internal troubles and that Yamamoto's appointment had come after Senna had criticised the team in an internal e-mail. Nevertheless, the team refused to comment on why the change had been made and confirmed that Senna would return to his seat at Hockenheim.

Other line-up changes for the first practice session saw Paul di Resta stand in for Vitantonio Liuzzi at Force India and Fairuz Fauzy take over Jarno Trulli's driving duties at Lotus. The race also saw Virgin bring their most significant upgrade of the season, whilst Lotus brought their final update for 2010 as the team shifted its focus to the 2011 car. Meanwhile, McLaren introduced their interpretation of the blown diffuser concept pioneered by Red Bull at the start of the season and debuted by Ferrari and Mercedes at the European Grand Prix, only for the Woking-based team to abandon it after struggling during Friday practice.

The new addition to the circuit was well-received, but several drivers requested that changes be made to the high kerbs through the Maggotts-Becketts complex, one of the fastest corner combinations on the Formula One calendar.

Free practice
The Friday free practice sessions marked the first time the drivers experienced the new layout. The reception was mixed, with Mark Webber and Fernando Alonso enthusiastic about it, while Robert Kubica and Heikki Kovalainen expressed a preference for the older circuit. Almost every driver commented on a large bump on the approach to the reprofiled Abbey turn, with some drivers claiming it was potentially better than Copse corner.

The Friday sessions were once again dominated by the Red Bulls, with Vettel posting the fastest time in the first session and Webber in the second. The new layout caught several drivers out, with Lewis Hamilton and Michael Schumacher running wide at Abbey. Whether a byproduct of the new layout or another factor, the Friday session produced some unusual times, with the Ferraris of Alonso and Massa struggling to find any real pace in the first session, whilst Renault's Vitaly Petrov was quicker than team-mate Kubica. In both sessions, just four drivers were within a second of the leader. Elsewhere, the new teams experienced troubles. While Lotus' Heikki Kovalainen slowly ate away at the difference to the established teams, Sakon Yamamoto was the slowest of the twenty-four drivers, seven and a half seconds off the pace. After surrendering his car to test driver Fairuz Fauzy for the first session, Jarno Trulli was hampered by reliability problems and limiting his time on the new layout before Kovalainen's car expired on the circuit late in the session.

The third and final session on Saturday morning continued the trend, with Sebastian Vettel returning to the top of the time sheets, with Mark Webber a close second; both drivers were the only two men to break the 1min 31sec barrier all weekend. Several drivers were hampered with mechanical issues, with Trulli losing more time to hydraulics problems, as did Adrian Sutil. Timo Glock also had little on-track time after this VR-01 fell victim to a throttle problem. Vettel also suffered his own mechanical problem when his front wing detatched itself on the high-speed approach to Abbey late in the hour. The young German driver was able to slow the car down and prevent an accident, and his time remained unbeaten for the last few minutes of the session.

Qualifying
The beginning of qualifying was marked by controversy following Vettel's wing failure. Red Bull had brought a new aerodynamic package to the race that included a new front wing, and team principal Christian Horner made the decision to remove the new front wing from Webber's car and give it to Vettel. This prompted an angry outburst from the Australian, with public perception being that Red Bull had robbed Webber for the sake of favouring Vettel, particularly following the aftermath of their collision in Istanbul. Otherwise, the first session saw the elimination of Jaime Alguersuari and the Lotuses, Virgins and Hispanias. Timo Glock edged out Kovalainen in the dying moments to qualify as the best of the newcomers, only to have Kovalainen take the place back moments later.

The second session saw the elimination of Jenson Button, with commentator Martin Brundle noting that the McLaren MP4-25 was incedibly rough over the bumps in the circuit, particularly on the approach to the new section. The Renaults of Robert Kubica and Vitaly Petrov also struggled despite their promising form in practice, and while Kubica just made it through to Q3, Petrov's session ended early when the car developed a fuel problem. Although the team were able to get the Russian out for one final lap at the end of the session, it was a sedate effort that only elevated him to sixteenth. Following the worst wualifying performance of his career in Valencia, Michael Schumacher set the fifth-fastest time of the session, with the team attributing their recent run of poor results to upgrading the car without fully understanding the effects of their new parts. Vitantonio Liuzzi was issued with a five-place penalty after qualifying for impeding Nico Hülkenberg after the Italian violently cut across the Williams driver when he made a mistake at Abbey. At the end of the session, Adrian Sutil had qualified elevent, ahead of Kamui Kobayashi, Hulkenberg, Button, Petrov and Sebastien Buemi, with Liuzzi relegated to twentieth place after his penalty.

The final session was dominated by Red Bull, with Vettel and Webber going blow-for-blow. The German prevailed by a tenth of a second, prompting Webber's outburst, with the Australian expressing extreme dissatisfaction with lining up on the dirty side of the grid, which had traditionally been a bad starting place at Silverstone. Fernando Alonso out-qualified Lewis Hamilton after the Briton somehow managed to overcome the troubles experienced by team-mate Button, with Nico Rosberg fifth. Despite earlier problems - suspected of being related to the car being caught in a crosswind - Robert Kubica managed fifth ahead of Felipe Massa, Rubens Barrichello and Pedro de la Rosa, the Spaniard's first time in Q3 all season. Michael Schumacher had to settle for the tenth and final place on the grid after only doing one lap as he had only had one set of tyres left over.

In addition to Liuzzi's penalty, Jaime Alguersuari was fined five thousand dollars for an unsafe pit release, and Sakon Yamamoto was warned for slowing other drivers.

Qualifying
Notes:
 * 1. – Vitantonio Liuzzi was demoted five places on the grid after he was penalised for impeding Nico Hülkenberg.