The British Grand Prix will have a capacity crowd next month

The British Grand Prix will go ahead with a full crowd of up to 140,000 people on 18 July after being added to the UK Government’s Event Research Programme, organisers have announced.

It was thought the race would have to take place in front of a limited number of fans after the lifting of Covid-19 restrictions was delayed in Britain until 19 July.

But inclusion on the ERP means all ticket holders will be able to attend as long as they can provide a negative lateral flow test no more than 48 hours before arriving at the track, or if they can show they’ve had both doses of a vaccine at least 14 days before they go through the gates.

It will surely be the biggest legal gathering of people in the country since social distancing became a thing almost a year and a half ago. The rules probably won’t allow for any crowd surfing though.

“It is fantastic news that Silverstone will be a full capacity event and it will be an incredible weekend with hundreds of thousands of fans,” said F1 president and CEO, Stefano Domenicali. “I want to express my huge appreciation to the Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, Secretaries of State, Oliver Dowden and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Michael Gove and Silverstone’s Managing Director, Stuart Pringle for their tireless work to achieve this great outcome. All of the drivers and the teams are hugely looking forward to Silverstone and we can’t wait to be there in July.”

Silverstone welcomed more than 351,000 fans over three days in 2019, but was forced to close its doors last season after stepping in to host two grands prix as part of the hastily rearranged F1 calendar. No doubt you’ll remember that Lewis Hamilton remarkably won the first of those on three wheels, with Max Verstappen taking victory at the 70th Anniversary Grand Prix a week later.

The two rivals look set to do battle once again at the Northamptonshire track after the closest start to an F1 title fight in years. They’ll also have to navigate the first ever F1 sprint race - basically a mini grand prix that will set the grid for the main event on Sunday - with the starting positions decided by a normal qualifying session on Friday evening. Bring it on.