Formula 1 – British Grand Prix LIVE: Start time, leaderboard and lap-by-lap updates as George Russell is forced to RETIRE on lap 34, as Lewis Hamilton leads at Silverstone ahead of Lando Norris and Max Verstappen

The Red Bull is looking great on those tyres but he’l need to get past Norris if he is to challegne Hamilon.

Nico Hulkenburg is now in xith. Fantastic effort from him.

A 4.5 second stop for Norris, disaster! Lewis Hamilton is the huge favourite to go on and win this race. It would be his first for 943 days!

The icon vs the young gun. 2.5 seconds in it between Hamilton and Norris. Verstappen lurking just behind.

It’s set up for a grandstand finish.

Huge cheers as Norris pits and it’s a shocker of a stop. 4.5s. Hamilton swoops in and takes the lead just before he returns to the track.

A two second lead for Hamilton. 12 laps to go!

Zak Brown admits he’s concerned about the undercut.

Piastri says medium tyrees are definitely the way to go but a couple are coming in for softs now.

Mercedes tell Hamilton Russell had to retire due to a water systems issue.

From pole position to retirement.

heads drop in the Mercedes garage as Russell is called into the pits and he won’t continue.

A technical issue and everything he says on the radio has to be bleeped out.

The Mercedes man says his tyres are ‘falling apart’.

He’s 3.5 seconds back from leader norris.

Red Bull think they’ve made a great decision to move on to the inters early.

Just a few sweconds seaprate the top six now.

Norris, Ruseel and Hamilton all come in and go on to the intermediates.

It’s starting to brighten up though. Piastri leads the race for now.

The Red Bull is now 10 seconds back from Russell in fifth and his team decide to pit.

Dark clouds loom and it looks like it’s going to get wet again.

Norris has a 1.5 seconds lead over Piastri for now.

Mclaren have worked this perfectly and now Piastri makes easy work of Hamilton.

Back and forth stuff here.

The Mclaren has the better grip and he flies past Hamilton!

Serious drama at Silverstone!

He’s been closing in and takes his chance with DRS.

Russell attempts to fight back and both go off the track but Hamilton stays in the lead.

Norris capitalises and sneaks past Russell. Suddenly it all looks very different.

The Mclarens are making this Red bull look very normal.

Piastri follows in his team-mate’s footsteps and passes Verstappen to move up to 4th.

Leclerc is told by his team that a downpour is coming.

Norris has been closing in on the Red Bull over the pat few laps and he makes a nice clean pass.

That brings a huge cheer from the crowd.

The Ferrari man makes his move on Lance Stroll and puts himself behind his team-mate.

He started on softs but now moves to medium.

The teams are having a little game of ‘guess when the rain is coming’ but it’s certainly on its way – we’ve just heard a rumble of thunder in the distance. I’m starting to feel more like a weatherman than a journalist.

Looks like rain is imminent and it’s time for the teams to make a decision on their tyres.

Verstappen is experiencing some trouble with his car.

He’s up to 14th after a nice move on the Wellington straight.

Ruseell is almost two seconds ahead of his team-mate now.

Verstappen doesn’t look particuarly threatening right now.

‘Rain in potentially 25 minutes,’ is the message to Lewis Hamilton over the radio. The Brit must have been doing a little pre-race rain dance.

Logan Sergeant reports that his team-mates Albon has lost some of his bodywork after a small collision with Alonso.

George Ruseel is now six tenths ahead.

Pierre Gasly has retired from the race.

Verstappen gets past Norris straight away and moves up to third.

George Russell still leads with Hamilton behind.

Leclerc is up to eighth and it looks like Alex Albon might have some sort of puncture.

A great start for Mercedes.

George Ruseel leads the cars out as they begin their warm up lap.

The risk of rain today is said to be around 60 per cent.

Jenson Button backs Hamilton to win. It’s almost time.

British actress Hannah Waddingham sings it with the British front three standing front and centre.

The Red Arrows fly over as she finishes.

Stuart Broad bigs up Jimmy Anderson’s farewell Test next week before saying he had a good chat with Australia captain Pat Cummins today.

Brundle spots Brian May and goes back for another go. He’s amusingly turned down again which he says might be a first for him.

Verstappen also walks away when asked for a chat.

This is as chaotic as ever.

This promises to be entertaining.

Jeremy Clarkson tells him everything is good on the farm before backing Alonso and Hamilton to do well should it rain.

Sir Chris Hoy says more gold medals will be won at the Olympics.

Mary Earps credits Jordan Pickford on a great save last night.

Sir Mo Farah greets Eddie Hearn after a brief chat with Brundle.

Sir Jackie Stewart is also here while Brian May comopletely ignores his attempts to initiate a chat.

Rowan Atkinson says it’s great to see him and he’s a guest of George Russell.

The excitement is building.

No shortage of British sporting royalty on the grid with Mo Farah, Owen Farrell, Stuart Broad and Mary Earps all at Silverstone. Australia’s Test captain Pat Cummins is also here. Anyone for a bowl-off, chaps?

Silverstone always draws in the big names and the likes of Jeremy Clarkson, Brad Pitt and Brian May have arrived to watch Sunday’s race.

Henry Clark at Silverstone: It has been a pretty awful four days in terms of the weather but that has failed to dampen the spirits of the hardy souls in the grandstands.

After a rare period of glorious sunshine, it has just started raining again. A shame for the fans in some respects, but a positive, perhaps, for the race. The wet would certainly level the playing field in Mercedes’ favour, setting up a potential thriller.

Max Verstappen is 81 points clear at the top of the standings.

Lando Norris sits in second with Charles Leclerc six points further back.

Carlos Sainz and Sergio Perez round out the top five.

George Russell delivered for his home crowd by landing a brilliant pole position for the British Grand Prix.

The Englishman held his nerve in a wet-dry qualifying session at Silverstone to see off team-mate Lewis Hamilton by 0.171 seconds as Mercedes locked out the front row.

McLaren’s Lando Norris completed a British one-two-three ahead of an anticipated 160,000 sell-out crowd for Sunday’s race.

Hello and welcome to Mail Sport’s live coverage of the British Grand Prix.

George Russell is on pole with Lewis Hamilton and Lando Norris behind him

The action gets underway at Silverstone at 3pm UK time.