F1 Starting Grid 2021 British Grand Prix

*George Russell penalised by three grid places for causing a collision during sprint qualifying
*Sergio Perez required to start from the pit lane. car modified whilst under Parc Fermé conditions

Possible 2021 British Grand Prix Strategies

The strategy for the 52-lap British Grand Prix is slightly more straightforward than usual because of the sprint qualifying, which has led to different tyre rules. One of them is that drivers are no longer obliged to start on the tyres with which they set their fastest Q2 Friday qualifying times: instead there is an entirely free choice, which means that all the drivers can simply follow the theoretically quickest strategy.

That's going to be a one-stopper: starting on the P Zero Yellow medium C2 tyres and then moving onto the P Zero White hard C1 until the end. An alternative strategy is to start on the P Zero Red soft and then switch to the hard earlier – but starting on the medium offers more flexibility in terms of pit stop timing and requires less tyre management. With more freedom in the tyre choice, the opposite could come into play too: starting on a harder tyre before switching to a softer compound.

What's certain is that a two-stop is definitely slower, but the best option in this scenario would be to use two sets of soft C3s and one set of C2 mediums.

2021 British F1 GP Race Notes

• The very first sprint qualifying race in Formula 1 history was won by Red Bull driver Max Verstappen from second on the grid, using medium C2 tyres from start to finish. As a result, he claims pole for the British Grand Prix tomorrow and scores an extra three championship points.
• Nearly all the drivers used the medium tyre throughout the 17-lap race, run over half an hour with no pit stops. Only four drivers selected the soft: Valtteri Bottas (Mercedes), Kimi Raikkonen (Alfa Romeo) and both Alpine drivers.
• Ambient temperatures were 28 degrees centigrade at the start of the race with track temperatures of 46 degrees.
• The drivers had a final chance to prepare for sprint qualifying during FP2 at midday. With the cars under parc fermé conditions, the teams concentrated on longer runs in preparation for tomorrow's race. Verstappen went fastest on the medium compound – likely to be the favoured starting tyre for the British Grand Prix tomorrow.