Since the last post, we have seen a number of events take place. In the non-F1 motorsport category we had the BTCC both at Oulton Park (dry on the whole) and then Croft Circuit (dry to start but got very wet by the end), MotoGP (Lorenzo extended his win streak) and the 24 Hours of Le Mans, which tragically saw Allan Simonsen of Denmark die as a result of his injuries sustained in the first 10 minutes of the race. Coincidentally, the Number 2 Audi, driven by former F1 driver Allan McNish, Tom Kristensen of Denmark and Loic Duval won the race with both a dane and a driver named Allan - a fitting tribute to the driver of the #95 Aston Martin.
In F1 news there was also a Mercedes / Pirelli International Tribunal which took place in Paris - but ran over to a second day before the announcement of a ban from the Young Drivers Test and a reprimand. This has apparently led to both Red Bull and Ferrari wanting to take the rules into their own hands and boycott the YDT in order to get more track time with their regular drivers in the 2013 car.
Along with many other teams, Mercedes AMG Petronas is based in the UK and is therefore the British GP is a home race for them - the perfect way to put the past few weeks of test gate behind them!
For the first time in a long time (if ever) there will be tickets available at the circuit for this weekend's race, the reduced British success and ticket prices reducing crowds along with the slightly earlier race date.
Talking of race dates, Sebastian Vettel is yet to win in July, so this could be a chance for him to add to his 2009 win, on 21st June. This has been a very good circuit for Red Bull so expect both Vettel and Mark Webber to be close to or in the Top 3 at least.
Ferrari appear to enjoy winning in odd years at Silverstone (at least in the last 10 years), with their last four wins being in 2003 (Rubens Barrichello after a lunatic ran out onto the track!), 2004 (Michael Schumacher, but this was almost a given in a near perfect first 13 races), 2007 (Kimi Raikkonen) and 2011 (Fernando Alonso).
McLaren will be hoping to put their non-score in Canada behind them for this race, as the more open Silverstone circuit could be better for their car and give a chance to get close to matching or beating Jenson Button's 5th place in China, especially if the weather misbehaves itself like 2012!
Another UK based team under pressure is Williams, who despite taking third place in qualifying with Valtteri Bottas just didn't have the pace to keep him even ahead of the McLarens - they are still looking for their first point of 2013 in what will be an important double header before the Hungarian GP and Summer break - they are celebrating their 600th race this weekend and would dearly love a decent result to mark the occasion.
After two relatively disappointing races for Lotus, they will be looking to get back into the upper half of the points as they were with Kimi Raikkonen for four of the first five races.
Unlike Williams and Lotus, the last two races have been impressive for both Toro Rosso and Force India, both of whom look to beat their best ever points totals* before the end of October at this rate.
*Toro Rosso's best is 41 in 2010, but with 39 in 2008 this would have been 107 on the current system - so the total of 41 is what I am talking about here as 107 would be unlikely without lots of big scores
Canada was a disasterous weekend for Sauber - at the circuit where Robert Kubica won for them (as BMW Sauber) in 2008, Hulkenberg had contact with Van Der Garde in the Caterham and Gutierrez crashed late on and resulted in the previously discussed crane incident.
As for Caterham and Marussia, it seemed to be status quo with Marussia edging ahead before they both head into one of their home races (in the latter's case it is their only home race) - who will come out on top after both recently conducted straight line tests?
All will be revealed this weekend - with FP1 and FP2 coverage being an hour later, but otherwise the rest is virtually the same.
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