THE BIG PICTURE: The war of words between Mercedes and Ferrari is heating up. Even Kimi's wife is getting involved. This is going to be one bang up, bare knuckle, entertaining championship battle.

TRACK: Maybe Silvestone should have consulted with Watkins Glen, who's complete repaving job a couple of years ago produced one of the finest track surfaces in the world. It seems Silverstone contracted Acme Paving.

EVENT: The gorgeous weather helped produce perhaps the greatest atmosphere seen in British GP history.

QUALIFYING: Hamilton is inspired by the home crowd, Ferrari comes oh so close, Leclerc shines again, Sainz is shockingly eliminated in Q1, and the Williams drivers "saved" their cars from being the embarrassment.

RACE: Now, that was a rip-roaring race.

START: Hamilton's poor start puts him in a bad situation, Raikkonen puts Hamilton in a worse situation, Perez nearly took the Williams cars -- starting from pit lane -- out, as Vettel enjoys a lonely view.

VETTEL: Sebastian would have had no trouble passing Bottas for the lead eventually, but that quick reflexive last minute dive down the inside was still fun to watch.

RAIKKONEN: If you read between the lines of his post race interview, does Kimi know he's done at Ferrari?

FERRARI: They closed the speed gap to Mercedes on a track the Prancing Horse should have been way behind. This bodes very well for their chances down the stretch.

HAMILTON: A great, and entertaining, comeback drive for Lewis. But, it's so hard to like him...

BOTTAS: No doubt, they should have pitted Valtteri during the last safety car period.

MERCEDES: The blame isn't on Ferrari's driving. The blame is on your starts.

RICCIARDO: Problems with his car kept him from matching his teammate's qualifying speed. But, he was very racy on Sunday.

VERSTAPPEN: Some nice moves by Max, but his brakes didn't hold up.

RED BULL: Way off the straight line pace on such a fast track. Honda will have their work cutout for them next year...

ALONSO: Once again, the broken record -- another amazing drive by Fernando putting a car in a position it has no right to be.

VANDOORNE: While Stoffel isn't capable of such a drive.

MCLAREN: But your car still sucks.

MAGNUSSEN: Back to normal -- Kevin is the only Haas driver to score points ... after his teammate nearly knocked him out of the race at the start.

GROSJEAN: That sight you see is Romain's F1 career hurtling off the track, smashing through the tire wall, and flying over the catch fencing.

HAAS: Talk about a broken record -- another haul of points thrown away.

LECLERC: Another impressive weekend by Charles ... until his team let him down.

HARTLEY: What a scary, scary crash for Brendon in FP3. That essentially ended his weekend for a driver who is losing opportunities to prove himself.

GASLY: Pierre must have been wondering if his car was next...

FERRUCCI: The lone American in F2 provided the three step plan to destroy your career: 1) crash into your teammate on purpose after the race, 2) refuse to show up to the Stewards room to answer the charges, and 3) have a father display unsportsmanlike behavior towards the teammate. All this resulting in the obvious: a two round (four race) ban from the FIA, a total of $77,500 in fines, and the team terminating your contract.

F2: The FIA sticks cheap clutches in the new cars this year. So, instead of fixing the problem, like providing better clutches, they instead go to rolling starts. And Europeans cannot do rolling starts, at all. Those starts are terrible.

WORD OF THE WEEKEND: Emotions.

STAT OF THE WEEKEND: 8 -- Vettel's points lead is now stretched to eight.

HISTORICAL STAT OF THE WEEKEND: This is the 70th anniversary of the first grand prix, originally called the Royal Automobile Club International Grand Prix, at the then 3.670 mile long Silverstone two years before they hosted the first World Championship grand prix. Maserati took the top two spots, with Luigi Villoresi, who started 24th because their cars did not arrive in time for qualifying, taking the win followed by Alberto Ascari (25th starting spot), 14.0 seconds behind. Bob Gerard (4th starting spot) was the top Brit as he took third in an ERA. The 65 lap, 238.55 mile race took 3:18:03.0. The RAC originally only had a one-year loan from the Air Ministry for the former WWII bomber station.

QUOTE OF THE WEEKEND: Minttu Raikkonen, Kimi's wife, on an Instagram message to Lewis Hamilton, "If you cry like a girl when you lose, do ballet. Just saying."

QUOTE OF THE WEEKEND RUNNERUP: Kimi on his initial reaction to the five-second penalty, "I'm not allowed to think anymore, okay."

SCHEDULE: A one weekend breather and then right at it again with back-to-back races before the summer break, led by the German GP which will not be back in 2019.

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