Every Formula 1 World Championship race since traces back to one Saturday afternoon at a former airfield in England.
On 13 May 1950, Silverstone hosted the British Grand Prix, the first round of the new World Championship of Drivers. Nino Farina won it, and Alfa Romeo owned the day.
An airfield becomes a racetrack
Silverstone began life as a Royal Air Force airfield, RAF Silverstone. After the war it was turned into a circuit, and it held its first British Grand Prix in 1948.
By 1950 the lap measured 4.649 kilometres. The race, officially also the European Grand Prix that year, ran over 70 laps.
It drew royal visitors. King George VI attended with Queen Elizabeth and Princess Margaret, the only time a reigning British monarch has watched a Grand Prix in Britain.
Alfa Romeo's four cars
Alfa Romeo arrived with four 158s, nicknamed "Alfetta", for Farina, Juan Manuel Fangio, Luigi Fagioli and the British driver Reg Parnell.
Ferrari, its biggest rival, stayed away, unhappy with the appearance money on offer. The Italian team made its championship debut at the next round, in Monaco.
Without Ferrari, the Alfas were in a class of their own. They filled the front row, with Farina on pole at 1:50.8, the first pole position in championship history.
The race
Twenty-one drivers from nine countries started. Farina led most of the way, 63 of the 70 laps, while Fagioli led for six and Fangio for one.
Fangio's race ended on lap 62 with a broken oil pipe, possibly after clipping one of the straw bales that lined the track.
Parnell had a stranger moment: he hit a hare, which dented the bodywork of his Alfa. He still finished.
Three Alfas on the podium
Farina won in 2 hours 13 minutes 23.6 seconds, at an average of 146.378 km/h, and set the fastest lap as well, worth an extra point.
Fagioli finished 2.6 seconds behind him and Parnell was third, 52.0 seconds back. The next car, Yves Giraud-Cabantous' Talbot-Lago, was two laps down.
Farina went on to win that first championship, and Alfa Romeo won six of the season's seven championship races. On the same weekend, a young Stirling Moss won the 500cc Formula Three support race.
Race it on Late Brake
Silverstone is one of the six real circuits in Late Brake, the free browser game. Its layout has changed a great deal since 1950, but you can still set a lap there, then race your own ghost or chase the gold medal time.