British Formula One GP to clash with the final round of golf’s Open Championship

The British Grand Prix will clash with the concluding round of golf’s Open Championship after Formula One bosses revealed the start times for this season’s calendar.

The Silverstone race will get under way at 3pm on July 19, with the leading group at Kent’s Royal St George’s expected to tee off around 30 minutes before.

The British GP is taking place a week later this year to avoid being on the same day as both the men’s Wimbledon final and the delayed Euro 2020 championships showpiece at Wembley Stadium on July 12.

Silverstone chiefs are keen for the race to be staged in front of a sell-out 140,000 fans in a campaign in which Lewis Hamilton could move ahead of Michael Schumacher with eight world championships.

Both last season’s British Grand Prix and 70th Anniversary Grand Prix at the Northamptonshire venue took place behind closed doors.

F1 officials are hopeful of pushing ahead with the record-breaking 23 round calendar, but there is some doubt over where the third race on May 2 will be staged.

It had been expected that Portugal’s Portimao circuit would be the venue, but the country was this week added to the UK government’s “red list”, meaning those returning to England would be subjected to 10 days of hotel quarantine.

Six of the 10 teams are based in the UK and it is unclear if elite sport will continue to be exempt from the government’s rules. The fourth race will take place in Spain on May 9.

It was also confirmed that both Friday practice sessions will this year be reduced from 90 minutes to one hour.

The new season gets under way in Bahrain on March 28.

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