Lewis Hamilton achieved his ninth British Grand Prix victory in an exciting Silverstone race, which was affected by the typical UK weather. The Mercedes driver finished ahead of his old title rival and current championship leader Max Verstappen to win.
Hamilton took advantage on Mercedes’ initiative to switch to slicks after a period of rain across the middle phase of the race, which moved him above long-time leader Lando Norris as McLaren was slower to respond to the wet conditions.
Equipped with soft tyres, Hamilton sought to preserve his newly acquired lead over Norris, which was less than three seconds when the Miami Grand Prix winner emerged from the pits on the same red-walled Pirellis.
Although Norris started to set a series of quick laps to get closer to the Mercedes’ gearbox, it appeared that his pace was unsustainable; that ultimately proved true when Verstappen – who had been uncharacteristically slow throughout the race – came to the fore on the hard tyre.
Verstappen soon began to catch Norris, which helped Hamilton with his lead as the two cars behind him began to fight for second. Norris didn’t have the tyres to fight Verstappen and conceded second in Stowe at the end of lap 48, leaving Hamilton four laps to keep the lead from a rapidly catching Red Bull.
The two had to overcome traffic, but neither lost much time; Hamilton began the final lap with over two seconds in hand, which proved to be enough to secure his first Formula 1 victory since the 2021 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.
“I cannot stop crying!,” Hamilton admitted after the race. “Since 2021, I just, everyday getting up trying to fight, to train, to put my mind to the task and work as hard as I can with this amazing team.
“This is my last race here at the British Grand Prix with this team, so I wanted to win this so much for them because I love them.”
Mercedes had ultimately nailed the crossover period after losing the lead to the McLarens during the initial drizzle. None of the front runners responded to the first bit of rain, as the slicks were able to hang on despite the greasy conditions, but the McLaren drivers had the better car in this stage.
Norris and Oscar Piastri hit the front over Hamilton and polesitter George Russell, who had been passed by Hamilton on lap 18 as the Mercedes driver struggled to contend with the first bit of rain.
When the second cell of rain arrived, Norris was followed into the pits by the Mercedes cars, while Piastri stayed out; this pulled Oscar out of the lead battle as he struggled on the extra lap on slicks.
Russell was then the next to lose position, as Verstappen undercut the Mercedes driver by stopping a lap sooner to collect third position. Although the polesitter was started to catch the Red Bull driver, he was asked to retire the car with a suspected water system issue.
Hamilton reported that the sun had come out at the start of lap 37 and, by the end of the next one, the circuit had dried significantly. Mercedes took the initiative and pulled Hamilton then, Lewis was followed by Max. The two diverged; Hamilton took the soft tyre and Verstappen taking the hard in anticipation of higher degradation.
McLaren made the decision to keep Norris out, but the race leader was adamant that he had to come in on the following lap – a move that ultimately cost the lead, and second position, as the soft tyres started to wear considerably versus Verstappen’s harder compound.
He had to console himself with third position, and his wearing tyres meant that he fell six seconds behind Verstappen at the flag. Piastri rescued fourth after dropping out of the victory battle through his delayed stop for intermediates.
Carlos Sainz, who had earlier battled Verstappen when the Red Bull driver struggled in the opening two-thirds of the race, pitted late to set the fastest lap on a set of used softs, as he had enough in hand over Nico Hulkenberg to call in.
Hulkenberg collected his second consecutive sixth-place finish to boost the Haas team’s aspirations of catching RB in the constructors’ championship, while Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso finished seventh and eighth for Aston Martin.
Alex Albon overcame a difficult first-lap as Hulkenberg and Alonso checked up into Turn 4, but overtook Yuki Tsunoda to clinch ninth – Tsunoda completing the top ten with a 10-second advantage over Logan Sargeant.
So congratulations to Lewis Hamilton in winning his home race for a record ninth time and to achieve victory for Mercedes is just heartwarming after many years of struggle. Been a real challenge for the team and driver to recover the lost form and to see the seven-time champion back at the top is just beautiful. What a great drive in a wet-dry race too. Well done Lewis!
British Grand Prix, race results:
1 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:22:27.059
2 Max Verstappen Red Bull +1.465s
3 Lando Norris McLaren +7.547s
4 Oscar Piastri McLaren +12.429s
5 Carlos Sainz Ferrari +47.318s
6 Nico Hulkenberg Haas +55.722s
7 Lance Stroll Aston Martin +56.569s
8 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin +63.577s
9 Alexander Albon Williams +68.387s
10 Yuki Tsunoda RB +79.303s
11 Logan Sargeant Williams +88.960s
12 Kevin Magnussen Haas +90.153s
13 Daniel Ricciardo RB +1 lap
14 Charles Leclerc Ferrari +1 lap
15 Valtteri Bottas Sauber +1 lap
16 Esteban Ocon Alpine +2 laps
17 Sergio Perez Red Bull +2 laps
18 Zhou Guanyu Sauber +2 laps
George Russell Mercedes DNF
Pierre Gasly Alpine DNF
Lewis Hamilton has claimed a long-awaited – and record-breaking – ninth British Grand Prix victory in a thrilling race at Silverstone, with the Mercedes driver holding off a challenge from Lando Norris to take the win.
While pole-sitter George Russell had led away from Hamilton as the event got underway, an exciting battle soon unfolded between the two Mercedes cars and the McLaren pair of Norris and Oscar Piastri amid changing weather conditions.
The lead changed hands as the field began to switch to intermediate tyres after the opening phase of the race, before the skies later became dry and Hamilton capitalised from pitting for slicks one lap before Norris – who also faced a slow pit stop – to become the new race leader.
While Russell retired with a water system issue – and Max Verstappen snatched P2 from Norris in the latter stages – Hamilton held position to clinch an emotional victory, a record ninth win in a single Grand Prix and his first P1 result since the 2021 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.
Despite looking increasingly quick on the hard tyres in the final laps, Verstappen did not have enough time to fight for the lead and crossed the line in P2 for Red Bull, while Norris completed the podium in third.
https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/hamilton-beats-verstappen-to-first-win-since-2021-with-record-breaking-9th.3teU9bznaWJlC2TGAYh0Vl
Max Verstappen thought he would “finish fifth [or] sixth” in Formula 1’s 2024 British Grand Prix given Red Bull’s early pace deficit to Mercedes and McLaren before he recovered to second.
The Red Bull driver was passed by both McLaren cars in the dry early stages of the wet weather thriller at Silverstone on Sunday, so ran fifth having initially moved up from fourth to third behind early leaders George Russell and Lewis Hamilton.
Verstappen’s call on when to pit for intermediates in the race’s second, and longer, rain storm meant he jumped back to third. McLaren leaving Oscar Piastri out for an extra lap than all the rest of the leaders also aided the world champion, who moved ahead of Russell when he had to stack behind Hamilton.
When it came to pitting for a second time to go back to the slicks, as the sun finally burst back through, Verstappen came in at the same time as Hamilton, who at this stage cycled to a lead he would never lose as Lando Norris stayed out for an extra lap.
Verstappen then used the hard tyres to catch and pass the soft-shod Norris before closing on Hamilton but ran out of time to pass.
“We just didn’t have the pace today,” Verstappen said in parc ferme afterwards.
“I was just steadily dropping back when it mattered in the beginning, so it didn’t look great. At some point I was really thinking, ‘Are we gonna finish fifth, sixth?’
“But, yeah, we made the right calls – direct from the slicks to the inters and also from the inters back to the slicks – I think it was every time the right lap.
“Then also the end – the call from the team to be on the hard tyre instead of the soft was definitely helping me out.
“But we also finished second today, so it could’ve been a lot worse, but we’re making the right calls – we still onto the podium and [I’m] of course very happy with that.”
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/verstappen-thought-hed-be-fifth-or-sixth-in-f1-british-gp/10632773/
Lewis Hamilton admitted to “days where I didn’t feel like I was good enough” amid his Formula 1 win drought, which ended in thrilling fashion at the British Grand Prix.
In a dry-wet-dry Silverstone race as summer showers continued to affect the grand prix weekend, Hamilton made the most of Mercedes taking the whip hand in strategic calls, as McLaren failed to react to the end of the rain swiftly enough.
Hamilton then preserved his soft tyres to ensure a rapidly catching Max Verstappen was kept at bay, which ended a 945-day victory dry spell after his last came at the 2021 Saudi Arabian GP in Jeddah.
Overwhelmed with emotion in the aftermath of his win, Hamilton admitted he had days where he thought he would never win again in F1, and thanked the Mercedes team – which he will leave at the end of 2024 for Ferrari – for its support.
“It’s so tough, I think for anyone,” Hamilton mused. “But I think the important thing is just how you continue to get up in this and you have got to continue to dig deep, even when you feel to feel like you’re at the bottom of the barrel.
“There’s definitely been days between 2021 and now where I didn’t feel like I was good enough, or where I was going to get back to where I am today.
“But the important thing is I have great people around me continuing to support me. My team, every time I turn up and see them put in the effort, that really encouraged me to do the same thing.
“Otherwise my fans when I see them around the world, they have been so supportive. So a big thank you to everybody back at the factory. Everyone here, I love you guys, and god bless you.”
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/hamilton-feared-never-winning-again-amid-945-day-f1-victory-drought/10632786/
Lando Norris was left deflated by two strategy calls at the British Grand Prix, admitting frustration that he and the McLaren Formula 1 team had “thrown away” another potential win.
Although Norris lost position to Max Verstappen on the opening lap of the grand prix, the McLaren driver began to grow into the race and, as the conditions worsened, had a surplus of pace versus the leading duo of Lewis Hamilton and George Russell.
The tyre temperature retention of the McLaren persisted through the switch to intermediates, and Norris was able to maintain the lead when the circuit was at its wettest.
However, the Bristol-born racer was undone by the crossover to slicks; first, he ended up losing the lead to Hamilton after stopping a lap later than the eventual winner, and then lost position to Verstappen as his soft tyres began to degrade.
Norris stated after the race: “[He and the team] are not making the right decisions, but at the same time I blame myself today for not making some of the right decisions. I hate it. I hate ending in this position and having excuses for not doing a good enough job.”
He later added: “So many things were going well, and we threw it away in the final stop. It was one lap, but also I don’t think it was the lap.
“I think even if I boxed on the perfect lap, our decision to go onto the soft was the wrong one, and I think Lewis still would have won no matter what. Two calls from our side cost us everything today so, especially here, it’s pretty disappointing.”
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/norris-threw-away-win-with-f1-british-gp-strategy-calls/10632829/
George Russell could not hide his disappointment after being forced to retire from his home event at the British Grand Prix, having earlier led from pole position on a day where he looked to be in with a chance of victory.
The Mercedes driver made a good launch from P1 on the grid when the race got underway and led from team mate Lewis Hamilton for the opening phase.
However, Hamilton overtook to go into the lead on Lap 18 of 52, before the McLaren pair of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri surged ahead of them both within just a couple of laps.
As the rain started to fall and the front-runners began to switch to intermediate tyres, Russell lost out to the Red Bull of Max Verstappen to then run in fourth, but further heartbreak followed when the Briton was called into the pits on Lap 34 to retire the car owing to a suspected water system issue.
Asked to sum up his feelings afterwards, a downbeat Russell responded: “Yeah, really disappointed. It was… Everything was under control at the beginning in the dry, then very challenging conditions in the damp.
“I started losing power and next thing I had to retire the car, so yeah, really disappointing.”
https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/russell-reflects-on-really-disappointing-retirement-from-home-race-at.4XRfV2HMeTOt2qvr0I2nL