Lewis Hamilton breaks Schumacher record in drought breaking win at British GP
Lewis Hamilton has broken a massive winless drought and all sorts of F1 records in emotional scenes at the British Grand Prix.
Lewis Hamilton has won the British Grand Prix, breaking a three-year drought and proving the veteran has still got it ahead of his move to Ferrari next season.
Max Verstappen has dominated F1 since he beat Hamilton to claim the 2021 title, racing to 61 career wins while Hamilton’s career floundered at Mercedes.
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But the Silver Arrows have improved their car, helping Hamilton start on the front row of the grid as he delivered a superb race to claim his first win since Saudi Arabia in 2021 — 945 days ago.
“I’ve been waiting for this,” the 39-year-old shouted after crossing the line in his Mercedes.
Hamilton held off Verstappen, while Lando Norris was third. Australia’s Oscar Piastri finished fourth after McLaren made a pit stop blunder, and Daniel Ricciardo was 13th.
It was his 104th F1 race victory, the most in history. With his ninth win at Silverstone, Hamilton also surpassed Michael Schumacher for the most wins at a single circuit. Schumacher won eight times at France’s Magny-Cours circuit.
It was the 37th time Hamilton and Verstappen have finished 1-2, extending their record.
He also broke the record for the biggest interval between first and last career wins — a gap of 17 years and 27 days since winning in Canada in 2007.
No driver had ever won a race after their 300th start. This was Hamilton’s 344th race.
In emotional scenes post-race, Hamilton was in tears as he fell into the arms of his father Anthony as the British crowd erupted.
His father famously consoled him in the Mercedes garage when he lost the championship in Abu Dhabi in 2021.
“Since 2021, every day fighting, training and putting my mind to the task, working as hard as I can,” Hamilton, who will be moving to Ferrari after this season, said at the finish line.
“This is my last race for the team here, I love them so much, I’ll be forever grateful to everyone at Mercedes and to the incredible fans.”
Four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel described Hamilton as the “GOAT” on social media.
Lovely moment between Lewis Hamilton and his father, Anthony, in parc ferme there - Hamilton wiping away the tears from under his visor. Huge amount of emotion for them #F1#BritishGP
— Luke Smith (@LukeSmithF1) July 7, 2024
The sun is shining on Lewis Hamilton again pic.twitter.com/VbwbL6kch8
— Stefanie (@fastpitstop) July 7, 2024
Hamilton, who started second on the grid behind his teammate George Russell, recorded his 13th consecutive podium at his home track.
Russell, the winner a week earlier in Austria, was forced out with a hydraulic problem.
Hamilton overtook Russell on lap 18 but was passed by Norris two laps later.
But a poorly executed McLaren pit stop allowed Hamilton to regain the lead with 12 laps remaining.
Hamilton finished 1.465sec ahead of Verstappen who overtook Norris three laps from the finish as the race ended in sunshine after a brief shower during the race.
McLaren have had arguably the strongest race pace but haven’t been able to crack through for a victory since Norris’ maiden win in Miami in May.
The slow pit stop, and a decision to put Norris on fresh soft tyres instead of medium tyres later in the race, saw Norris fall behind Hamilton (soft tyres) and Verstappen (hard tyres).
Chatting to Norris in the post-race cool down room, Hamilton said changing to medium tyres could have got McLaren the win.
He said: “You on soft as well? But you had two new mediums?”
“I know,” Norris replied.
“Yeah, you could have gone to the medium … a new medium would have been faster probably,” Hamilton said.
“First of all, congrats to Lewis,” Norris said.
“That crucial decision at the end, he just did a better job on so hats off to him and Mercedes so they deserve it.
“It was tough. It was enjoyable. It was fun fighting these guys and these tricky conditions are always on a knife edge and you’re risking so many things but a few too many let downs today and as a team, I don’t think we did quite the job we should have done or good enough but still lovely to be on the podium here.”
“At the same time, I blame myself today for not making some of the right decisions but I hate it.
“I hate ending in this position and ever having excuses for not doing a good enough job but I’m still happy. I’m still going to enjoy it.
“I think we still did so many things right, so many positives. But especially here at Silverstone, the one place I would love for everything to go perfectly. It didn’t today, but I’m going to come back stronger next year and try again.”
Red Bull’s Verstappen increased his lead in the drivers’ standings over Norris by three points to 84 points despite failing to win for two consecutive races for the first time since Silverstone and Austria in 2022.
Piastri was fourth with Carlos Sainz of Ferrari fifth and Nico Hulkenberg of Haas sixth. Sergio Perez was 17th in a dire result for the Red Bull driver.
There have now been six different race winners this season, with Hamilton, Verstappen, Norris, George Russell, Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc all saluting.
British Grand Prix results
1) Lewis Hamilton 2) Max Verstappen
3) Lando Norris 4) Oscar Piastri
5) Carlos Sainz 6) Nico Hulkenberg
7) Lance Stroll 8) Fernando Alonso
9) Alex Albon 10) Yuki Tsunoda
11) Logan Sargeant 12) Kevin Magnussen
13) Daniel Ricciardo 14) Charles Leclerc
15) Valtteri Bottas 16) Esteban Ocon
17) Sergio Perez 18) Zhou Guanyu
DNF: George Russell, Pierre Gasly
— With AFP
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