F1: 70th Anniversary Grand Prix 2020 at Silverstone – live!

15/52 Hamilton’s pit is done and he comes out sixth behind Leclerc. That means he has serious traffic to deal with. Bottas is fourth now, his tyres giving him real pace.

14/52 Hamilton is in the lead now, and Bottas drops down to sixth. Verstappen should be in the lead by the end of this lap and will be as Hamilton pits.

13/52 Hamilton’s tyres are blistered so he will come in soon or disaster may await. Verstappen is hounding him for second. Hamilton has a battle on his hands for once. Bottas pits.

12/52 Mercedes’ tyres are being prepared and Verstappen is on the tail of Hamilton with DRS to play with. Hamilton’s tyres are coming apart at the seams and Verstappen is gaining on him.

11/52 Gasly rounds Raikkonen, the old soldier, with Albon on his tail. Albon had to go wide round the not-so flying Finn. Verstappen is told to back off by his garage – they are worried about his tyres – but he wants to race on.

10/52 Mass pitting, with Williams’ pair both doing so. Albon, after his pit, is chasing down Gasly for 15th.

9/52 Leclerc, moved up due to Albon’s pit, is chasing Norris in seventh. Verstappen is closing the gap on the lead pair on those hard tyres. He waits for them to cut each other’s throats.

8/52 Verstappen is sitting pretty in third as has been habitual, and waiting for errors or tyre problems from Mercedes, as happened last week. He’s on harder tyres than them at the moment.

7/52 Alex Albon has gone in for a change of tyres. As does Pierre Gasly, which suggests some strategising over the tyres. The heat is central to strategy.

6/52 Bottas seems concerned about the heat of his tyres. He’s still leading and his advantage is up a tenth of a second or so. But we do have a race on our hands at the front, which makes something of a change.

5/52 Albon is taking on Norris in the battle for eighth. Beyond Vettel, it’s been a less exciting start than last week at Silverstone. In turn, Leclerc, in tenth is chasing down Albon. Vettel has made up a couple of places.

4/52 The gap between the leaders is less than a second. Bottas has to put in the defensive drive of his life here. Hamilton and him are already blazing clear of the rest.

3/52 Bottas took the fastest lap. Vettel tries to get back on to the field. He span it during the start and came off the side of the track. That’s driver error. Not the best look for a man looking for a new job?

2/52 Vettel is dead last, the smoke was coming from the wheels of his Ferrari which wouldn’t turn. This has been a horror of a season for Ferrari and Vettel in particular. Bottas is a second clear of Hamilton as DRS can be switched on for the third lap.

1/52 Bottas ahead of Hamilton, and Verstappen takes Hulkenberg immediately. Vettel has problems. There’s smoke in the air. Bottas and Hamilton are hard at it. Stroll overtakes Ricciardo to take fifth.

Here comes the formation lap. No dramas like the last two weeks with Max Verstappen and Nico Hulkenberg’s races against time. It’s hot out there. Trackside it’s 44 degrees celsius.

The gap between Bottas and Hamilton is 30 points at the top of the drivers championship. Should Lewis win this one then it has to be expected that he will be collecting his seventh world title. It’s all on the start where Bottas can occasionally be hesitant.

On the grid, and after a slight delay, the UK national anthem is sung. The cars are in situ on the grid now, and the drivers are taking to their cars ahead of the parade lap.

The finishing touches are being put in place in the garages as the teams await on the grid.

Bit of pre-race controversy with the Racing Point team penalised 15 points in the constructors championship. They are not taking it lying down.

We’re back at Silverstone and perhaps things might be different to last week. First up: the weather. It is blisteringly hot in England and even with a touch of cloud cover it is going to hit temperatures of 29-30 degrees during the race. Were there to be crowds at the fabled Northants venue, there would be no such thing as the traditional car-park swamp.

And this week Lewis Hamilton is second on the starting grid, behind Valtteri Bottas, who outpaced his Mercedes teammate on Saturday in qualifying. Hamilton was not impressed with his own performance.

The most exciting performance in qualifying was by Nico Hulkenberg. Having jetted in last week to replace Covid-19-positive Sergio Perez and then suffered from his Racing Point car breaking down ahead of the British GP, he blasted his way to third on the grid in front of Max Verstappen. Not bad for a spare driver. He drove like he is, someone with nothing to lose.

The battle for mid-table is likely to be where all the intrigue lies but Hamilton learned some lessons last week, having crawled home with a puncture when his tyres gave out on the last lap. A one-stop strategy seems unlikely so pitting strategy is likely to be crucial today.

The race goes at 2.10pm UK time. Join me.