There were no big changes to the entry for the British GP but there was plenty of excitement as John Watson was leading the World Championship by one point from Didier Pironi. There was a new Fittipaldi chassis and Nigel Mansell was back in action for Team Lotus having missed the Dutch GP.

Qualifying resulted in a rare non-turbocharged pole position for Keke Rosberg with the two Brabham-BMWs right behind him, Nelson Piquet ahead of Riccardo Patrese. Fourth on the grid was Pironi's Ferrari with the top 10 being completed by Niki Lauda (McLaren), René Arnoux (Renault), Elio de Angelis (Lotus), Alan Prost (Renault), Michele Alboreto's Tyrrell and the second Williams of Derek Daly. Andrea de Cesaris was 11th in his Alfa Romeo but he had demolished a car in qualifying when his rear wing broke.

There was some excitement as the Brabham team had brought along refueling equipment and seemed to be planning to race with soft tyres and half tanks and stop at the halfway point. As the field set off on the parade lap, Rosberg's car did not go and so Patrese became the pole position man. When the lights changed he did not move and so Piquet took off into the lead with Pironi jinking to the right to miss the Brabham but René Arnoux banging into the back of it. This forced Watson to go onto the grass while a wheel bounced into the path of Teo Fabi's Toleman and ended his race.

Piquet led Lauda while Rosberg drove a remarkable first lap to make up eight places. There was a spectacular accident on the second lap when Chico Serra (Fittipaldi) collided with Jean-Pierre Jarier's Osella, the Brazilian's car becoming airborne before crashing back onto the track and going backwards into the barriers and flipping upside-down. Serra emerged rather shaken.

Watson had to spin the avoid the crash and he was out.

At the front Piquet continued to lead Lauda with Pironi, de Angelis, Daly and de Cesaris following with Derek Warwick up to sixth place.

On the 10th lap Piquet suddenly slowed with a fuel injection pump failure, leaving Lauda ahead of Pironi while the fans became increasingly excited as Daly and Warwick moved into third and fourth places. Warwick eventually overtook Daly and on lap 26 went past Pironi as well. Rosberg's charge ended with a pit stop and Warwick's run also came to an end with a broken CV joint. This put Pironi back to second and there he stayed. De Angelis was third but was robbed of the place on the last lap by fuel starvation. Daly finished fifth with the final point going to Prost.