An earthquake; of hope, hysteria and history. Silverstone's permanent history has shaken the very fabric of Formula 1 and created a legend of its own.
Through multiple different configurations, in spite of occasional absences and with its future consistently questioned; there is arguably no greater celebration of this sport's drama than on the 5.891 kilometre-long colosseum.
It is a gripping, yet chaotic track which was formerly a World War Two airfield. Its openness exposes itself to sudden changes of weather, which has spiced up many races through the years.
It is also worth mentioning that the British Grand Prix has also been held at Brands Hatch and Aintree (yes, where the Grand National takes place). Brands Hatch circuit last hosted an F1 race in 1986, which was won by Nigel Mansell.
And the Aintree last staged the British Grand Prix in 1962 which was won by another Brit, Jim Clark.
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Home Heroes
Lewis Hamilton revels at Silverstone. Seven poles, nine wins, 15 podiums and he has his place assured in its history. The sport's most successful driver has always been a threat at the Northamptonshire/Buckinghamshire track.
He took pole in his first ever Silverstone Grand Prix, in 2007, pulling a lap from out of nowhere to topple fellow McLaren driver, Fernando Alonso. Though he dropped to behind Alonso and race-winner Kimi Raikkonen the next day, Hamilton would not have to wait too long to stand on Silverstone's top step.
Fourth on the grid for the 2008 race, Hamilton charged into second in an instant. From a wet start, the McLaren eased away from Raikkonen and Mark Webber off the grid and was side-by-side with the sister McLaren of Heikki Kovalainen into the-then first turn of Copse.
Laps later, he dispensed of the Finn, but what came next was the stuff of greatness. Timing each tyre switch better than his immediate rivals, Hamilton pulled away as the rain intensified.
Then, when the weather warranted extreme wet tyres, Hamilton was forced to stay with the unsuited intermediates. But he then proceeded to lap nearly half a dozen seconds a lap quicker than those on the same tyre compound.
This culminated in Hamilton winning the 2008 British Grand Prix by an earth-shattering 68 seconds, on a day where the visibility and grip was so dire that his title rival, Felipe Massa, spun five times.
Jim Clark, the greatest driver of the 1960s, also had this circuit wrapped around his finger. In addition to his Aintree victory, and a Brands Hatch success, he won three times at Silverstone.
But he remarkably overcame a misfiring and oil pressure fault, in 1965, and remedied worries of not finishing the race by merely turning his engine off through the corners. Such was the Scot's unparalleled versatility and smoothness, he still went on to win.
Nigel Mansell (above) was another name, amongst others, who thrived in front of his home British crowd.
A winner of two grand prix at Brands Hatch, Mansell was a winner at Silverstone in 1987; '91 (ceremonious enough to have received a fax from the-then Prime Minister, John Major) and '92. But it was his first Silverstone triumph that defines many fans' perception of his lionheart approach.
Running behind teammate and arch rival, Nelson Piquet, Mansell's Williams made a pit stop due to a lost wheel weight which created a tyre imbalance. This left him with a deficit of 29 seconds with 28 laps remaining.
A chain of fastest laps invigorated the Silverstone crowd. Then, an incredible dummy-overtake to the inside of Piquet, at Stowe, granted him arguably his greatest race win.
Such is the richness of Silverstone's legend, many of the sport's most noteworthy moments have also transpired here. Here are some of them:
1950
Named the European Grand Prix, the first ever Formula 1 world championship race took place at Silverstone in May 1950. Despite the day's earlier support races being incredibly riveting, the grand prix was not so much.
The leading Alfa Romeos, Nino Farina and Juan Manuel Fangio, swapped places before the Argentine dropped out. Farina went on to win the race from pole and would later seal that year's drivers' title.
1951
Ferrari have won the most world championship grand prix of any constructor, and their first came in 1951.
Jose Froilan Gonzalez took pole and went on to take the win after an epic earlier battle with Fangio and Felice Bonetto.
1969
At this time in history, after the passing of Jim Clark the previous year, Jackie Stewart and Austria's Jochen Rindt were the field's two stand-out drivers. Rindt was considered by many to be the quicker of the two, but Stewart's efficiency and reliability propelled him to many more victories.
In his first season driving for Colin Chapman's Lotus team, Rindt got to the point of not speaking to the veteran designer. And after that year's Silverstone race, the partnership was at its nadir.
The Austrian brushed off intra-team squabbles over which car to race by qualifying on pole. He then endured in a battle for the lead with Stewart, which the Scotsman would win after the Lotus' rear wing end plate deteriorated.
1973
Jody Scheckter became Ferrari's last world champion of the 20th century, but his driving had been lamented beforehand.
The young driver's incident-prone reputation came to a head at Silverstone, where he lost control of his car, through the now flat-out kink of Woodcote, crept back onto the racing line and caused a nine-car pileup. Up to that point, it was the most vivid first lap accident in world championship history.
1979 and 1981
Poignant firsts were achieved in back-to-back Silverstone races, the first was Williams' maiden win, in 1979.
The winning feeling should have been Alan Jones', who was the lightning force towards the end of that season. However, reliability troubles forced him out and allowed veteran Clay Regazzoni to win for the last time in the sport.
It started a dynasty which would earn them nine constructors' and seven drivers' championships in the next two decades.
1981 was a year in which they won a constructors' title, but the Ulsterman John Watson would win the season's British race.
It was McLaren's first win of the new decade, but what made the moment so historic was that it was the first victory for a carbon-fibre monocoque, a revelation at the time but standard practice in the modern world of the sport.
2003
22 years back, Rubens Barrichello's awesome race craft earned him victory at the British Grand Prix.
Where the Abbey turn is now a flat-out right-hander, it used to start a left-right chicane which would quickly lead onto the fearsome right-handed Bridge turn. This part of the track was core to the Brazilian's success that day.
He overtook Kimi Raikkonen (twice) and Ralf Schumacher through this sequence. But in the middle of it all, the race was neutralised after a priest ran onto the track.
You read that right, a priest not only ran on to the track but into the face of oncoming Formula 1 cars. This was down the Hangar Straight, where the drivers were building up incredible speed.
Thankfully nobody was hurt, but it certainly added controversy to what was a thrilling race.
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