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Lap by lap updates on the action from Silverstone
Tony Hawk – skateboarder not member of Morris Minor and The Majors – is here. He has his board with him. Tom Holland – actor not popular historian – is also there. “I am going to try and catch Lewis. I am always wary not to be a distraction,” he tells Martin Brundle. Damson Idris – of the Brad film – will be waving the chequered flag. “I’m so glad everyone has supported the movie.” It stops raining. Nigel Mansell – from the Isle of Mad – is there with Jackie Stewart. “Lewis has an outside chance,” says Nige. Sebastian Coe is cheering for “anyone who can master the circumstances. Clarkson’s here, Clarksoning along. “There’s 20 drivers, and 17 I like them.” Someone called Kaleb – a Clarkson acolyte? – is there with Jezza. Sam Ryder – the world’s most excitable man – gives Brundle a hug. Hannah Waddingham dishes out the hugs and the luvviedom to Brunds, too. She wants to see Hamilton and Verstappen “going at it in the wet”. The drivers rush to the track. Fernando Alonso gives the thumbs up. Ian Wright is “buzzing, bro”, and now Idris Elba is as hyped as Wrighty and Ryder – he’s “Team Lewis”. And here’s the National Anthem with clouds deep above the track…Becky Hill gives it the discursive, big flourish at the end on “k-i-n-g”. Let’s get racing!
Fat Boy Slim is on the wheels of steel. Can he be overheard over the engines? Right here, right now, it’s still raining. “I love that it’s raining,” says Lewis Hamilton. “Good old English weather. I get nervous as this is the week you get nervous the most. The fans have been ride or die with me. Thanks to them I really get to enjoy it.”