Championship leader Sebastian Vettel will try to extend his lead at the top by ending the dominance of his main rival Lewis Hamilton at his home Grand Prix at Silverstone.

After last week’s race in Austria, Vettel now holds a 20-point lead over Hamilton, who had to endure a grid penalty at the Red Bull Ring due to gearbox issues.

This weekend Hamilton has already had to fend off criticism this week as he was the only driver on the grid to miss the London street demonstration, as he instead took a break.

? from Silverstone ??

Almost time for FP1 ?#BritishGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/i0AlmuZ2ja

— Formula 1 (@F1) July 14, 2017

“Being as it’s such an intense championship I’m really trying to do the right thing to get myself in the best position to be here and perform in the way I have,” he said.

“I’ve tried to prepare the best way I can with a relaxed few days away. The season is the most important thing for me.”

Hamilton would dearly love to register his fourth straight British GP win, which has only ever been done by one other driver Jim Clark, and it would also put him on five wins overall – making him equally the most successful driver at the British GP with Clark and French legend Alain Prost.

“I will give everything to shine as much light and raise the flag in the best way I can. The goal is to win the British Grand Prix. I’ve been proud and fortunate in the last few years to do that and the aim is to do that again this weekend,” he said.

Vettel has a new engine going into the weekend and is hopeful of performing well.

“We’ll fit a new engine and I don’t think it will be a big difference, but obviously we have some things planned,” he said.

Daniel Ricciardo and Red Bull have been improving quickly in recent races which have seen the Australian take consecutive podium finishes and hopes are high they can challenge Ferrari and Mercedes.

“We got a taste of it in Austria. The second, third sector we were carrying some serious speed, so it’s a sign of what this weekend is going to be like I think,” he said.

The Aussie is looking forward to SIlverstone.

“It’s going to be fun. I love high-speed corners,” he said.

“From turn nine to 15, Copse to Stowe, it’s some of the coolest sequences … probably (the best) mile of race track we go on all year.”

We spoke with BetFred’s F1 trader Craig Durnin to get his opinion on the weekend action

We have seen a steady run of business across the top half of the betting. I think Hamilton’s penalty last week has made the punter more wary of investing heavy pre-practice/qualifying

Hamilton is certainly seeing his fair share of the market but to be fair so is his team-mate Bottas. He did the business last week and if he qualifies, well he has a right chance.

The Red Bull lads are also more than capable on their day as everybody knows and yes, they are being backed despite me staying short the pair

Barring an absolute disaster I cant see Hamilton or Vettel not making the podium this week. Who grabs the third and final spot is tougher. Ricciardo at 11/4 may be worth a few quid

BetFred pick…

I think Hamilton is going to be really fired up for this and the Winning margin ‘over 10 seconds’ at 19/10 is something I will be following closely