It’s all coming home for Lewis Hamilton. After 56 races and 945 days, the Mercedes driver returned to the top of the podium at the British Grand Prix to snap the longest drought of his illustrious career.
Hamilton took the victory on home turf Sunday for his first win since the penultimate race of the 2021 season in Saudi Arabia.
In somewhat of a throwback to that year, Hamilton held off Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, who was charging during the final stretch but came up short by 1.465 seconds.
McLaren’s Lando Norris, who was an additional six seconds back of Verstappen, finished third to round out the podium.
It’s been a while, and the emotions got to Hamilton as he wiped away sweat and tears, then draped himself in the Union Jack.
Hamilton started second on the front row beside pole sitter and Mercedes teammate George Russell, with Norris making it a British 1-2-3 start — something that hadn’t happened in F1 since the 1968 South African Grand Prix with this lineup of legends: Jim Clark, Graham Hill and Jackie Stewart.
Hamilton’s veteran craftiness shined just as the rain started to fall. As Russell started to slip, Hamilton made the move into the lead on Lap 18. The McLarens of Norris and Oscar Piastri were in hot pursuit, though, and engaged in a thrilling back-and-forth battle over the following two laps to pick off the Mercedes cars and move into the top two spots.
The key moment came when Hamilton undercut Norris to pit for soft tires on Lap 39. As Norris had to wait until the following lap to pit for his set of soft tires, a couple of hiccups allowed Hamilton to erase the deficit and retake the lead. Norris slid on the concrete through the pit lane and spent an additional couple of seconds in his box as well, which held him up just long enough to see Hamilton breeze by when he returned to the track.
Verstappen, sporting the hard-compound tire, made a clean pass by Norris with DRS on Lap 48 without a repeat of last week’s collision between the two friends.
Although the Dutch driver may have had the tire advantage with the softs degrading, it wasn’t enough to close the gap within the remaining three laps.
Will England also emerge victorious over the Netherlands when the two sides meet later this week at the European Championships? Stay tuned.
That’s also now back-to-back wins for Mercedes — again, something they haven’t achieved since 2021. While you could debate Russell was gifted the win in Austria following Verstappen and Norris’ aforementioned collision, this one was earned on merit. Mercedes have been making up for lost time as it was only a month ago when Russell and Hamilton claimed their first podiums of the season. Now, they’re both winners as well.
Russell wasn’t able to convert from pole position as he bowed out on Lap 34 with a suspected water system issue. The irony was not lost that it happened while it was still raining, but his car would have cooked itself.
HAMILTON BY THE NUMBERS
Whenever Hamilton wins you know you’re entering special territory. Here’s a quick look at some “by the numbers” following the victory.
6: Different drivers have won through 12 events this year and we’ve only hit the midway mark of the season. Just three drivers (Verstappen, Sergio Perez and Carlos Sainz) earned grand prix victories all of last year.
9: Wins at Silverstone for Hamilton, which is now the record for the most at a single circuit. Michael Schumacher won eight times at the French GP, while Hamilton also has eight wins at the Hungarian GP, which, oddly enough, is the next stop on the calendar in two weeks.
11: Consecutive podiums at Silverstone for Hamilton stretching back to 2014.
16: Seasons with at least one win, now an F1 record. Hamilton captured his first at the Canadian Grand Prix during his rookie year in 2007.
104: Career wins for Hamilton, the most all time.
199: Career podiums, which also tops that list.
MISSED OPPORTUNITY FOR MCLAREN
It was looking like it could be a McLaren 1-2 finish when Norris took the lead and Piastri moved into second on Lap 20, but things went sideways for the team once pit stops entered the equation.
McLaren opted not to double-stack for intermediate tires on Lap 28, with Norris boxing first and Piastri having to wait until the following lap. Although that allowed Piastri to lead the race, he quickly struggled, and any and all advantage from staying out evaporated. When Piastri finally pitted, he returned to the track in sixth place. Sure, Piastri would have lost a bit of time under a double-stack scenario, but not nearly as much as he did with the scenario that played out.
As mentioned early, Norris could only watch as he rejoined the track following a poor pitstop on Lap 39 as Hamilton breezed by and into the lead. The switch to softs was meant to match Hamilton; however, that failed to account for Verstappen, who had pitted previously on the hard tires and was able to pass Norris with three laps to go. Perhaps the medium compound right in the middle, and one McLaren had excelled on during their opening stint, would have been the better choice.
It’s hard to fault a team for a 3-4 finish but the question of “what if?” will still linger when 1-2 was a possibility.
RACE PACE ELUDES VERSTAPPEN
Verstappen looked vulnerable in a rare instance this season. The three-time reigning world champion qualified fourth after sustaining floor damage during Q1 when he ran off the track near Copse corner. His car’s floor was replaced in time for the race, but the Red Bull simply didn’t have the race pace to fight for the win until the end.
Verstappen still outscored Norris to extend his commanding lead in the drivers’ championship to 84 points. Meanwhile, Verstappen’s Red Bull teammate Perez continues to trend in the wrong direction and has now slipped to sixth in the standings.
Perez beached his car in the gravel during qualifying and failed to make it out of the first round for the third time through five races. The Mexican driver started from the pit lane and came in 17th, which was basically second-last when you consider two drivers retired from the race. Only Sauber’s Zhou Guanyu crossed the line after Perez. How iron-clad is that two-year contract extension Perez signed last month?
FAST FIVE
• Other than McLaren, there was only one other team that scored a double-points finish: Aston Martin. Lance Stroll crossed the line seventh with teammate Fernando Alonso in eighth. The Canadian driver Stroll is now back in the top 10 in the standings.
• Williams driver Alex Albon started and finished ninth but not without incident. Albon sustained damage on the opening lap after coming into contact with Alonso and teammate Logan Sargeant, which dropped him down to 12th. Sargeant, who’s on the hot seat, had his best finish of the season in 11th, although it’s still not something worth celebrating as he’s yet to score a point in 2024.
• Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc was just 31 points behind Verstappen in the championship after winning his home Monaco Grand Prix at the end of May. Now? The Monegasque driver is a whopping 105 points back of Verstappen. During the second stage of qualifying, Stroll came through with a buzzer-beater hot lap to bump Leclerc out of the top 10. Starting 11th meant Ferrari would have to gamble to get into contention, and they called Leclerc into the pits for intermediate tires ahead of the pack. It ended up being a case of having the right tires at the wrong time as they made the switch too soon and the track wasn’t wet enough. Leclerc finished a lap down in 14th. Ferrari did make the right call to bring in Sainz for soft tires late as he not only held on to fifth place but also swiped the fastest lap bonus point.
• Nico Hulkenberg continues to impress, qualifying sixth for the Ferrari-powered Haas team and starting ahead of both of the actual Ferrari cars. Hulkenberg managed to finish sixth as well and repeated his result from a week ago. Haas (27 points) are now just four points back of RB (31) for sixth in the championship. It’s a bit of a shame Hulkenberg is set to leave at the end of the season to join Sauber, but this could boost Haas’ chances if they wish to pursue one of the available free agents like Sainz or Esteban Ocon with a car capable of performing well.
• What a disastrous weekend for Alpine and Pierre Gasly. The French driver was facing an uphill battle anyway with a 50-place grid penalty (no, really) due to infractions for changing parts. It didn’t matter though. Gasly qualified in last place regardless and didn’t even make it to the grid as he was called back to the pits during the formation lap. Despite having shiny new equipment, Gasly retired before the race started due to a suspected faulty gearbox. A disappointing way for Gasly’s four-race points streak to end.