F1 British Grand Prix: Lewis Hamilton ends drought with fairy tale win
Lewis Hamilton’s three-year wait for a grand prix win is over after coming out on top at Silverstone, with Lando Norris ‘fed up’ with his team over a blown opportunity.
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Lewis Hamilton claimed an emotional and long-awaited record 104th career victory on Sunday when he resisted Max Verstappen to triumph in vintage fashion at the British Grand Prix for a record ninth time.
The seven-time champion, who will turn 40 in January, cracked with emotion and was in tears as he spoke on Mercedes team radio on his victory lap, having finished 1.465 seconds ahead of Red Bull’s series leader and three-time champion.
In a roller-coaster race of changing weather and track conditions, Lando Norris came home third ahead of his McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri, Carlos Sainz of Ferrari and Haas’ Nico Hulkenberg with Lance Stroll finishing seventh for Aston Martin.
Hamilton, who had not won since the 2021 Saudi Arabia Grand Prix, delivered a masterclass in tyre and race management to secure his 150th podium finish for Mercedes.
Hamilton showed he was in the mood to win when he snapped at his engineer on team radio.
“When I am told to shut up, I know it is ‘game on’ and he’s going for victory,” long-serving.” Mercedes race engineer Peter Bonnington said after Hamilton’s “fairy tale” triumph.
In a topsy-turvy race in changing conditions, Hamilton and Bonnington preserved positions and tyres and then grabbed the initiative with a bold tyre switch in the closing laps.
It was then that Bonnington knew his driver’s long wait for victory was imminent.
“He does a great job when it comes down to the wire,” he said. “He’s the one that’s going to manage the tyres and get you to the end.” “I wouldn’t say there was zero doubt, but I knew that once he had the bit between his teeth -- as soon as I get told to ‘shut up’ -- then I know that the game’s on.”
“I’ve been waiting for this,” shouted Briton Hamilton after crossing the line in his Mercedes to claim a ninth victory at Silverstone, breaking a tie with Michael Schumacher for most wins at one track.
“I can’t stop crying,” said Hamilton. “I think, since 2021, every day getting up, trying to fight, and to train, and to put my mind to the task and work as hard as I can with this amazing team.”
Hamilton is leaving Mercedes for Ferrari after this season.
“This is my last British GP with this team. I wanted to win so much for them. I love them so much. All the hard work they’ve been putting in.”
Verstappen overtook Norris in the closing laps.
“We just didn’t have the pace today,” said Verstappen. “I was slowly dropping back when it mattered at the beginning. It really wasn’t looking great at one point, but we made the right calls.”
A frustrated Norris said his McLaren team “threw away” victory after bad decisions cost him the lead.
Norris was asked if McLaren had bungled their chances with poor decision-making, notably a delayed switch to soft tyres, instead of mediums, for the final sprint to the flag.
“I’ve heard that a lot lately,” said Norris, “I hate saying it again, but so many things were going well and we threw it away at the final stop. So, one lap too late, but also I think that even had I boxed on the perfect lap, our decision to go on the softs was the wrong one.
“I think Lewis would still have won, no matter what, but two calls from our side cost us everything today. So for me, it’s pretty disappointing, especially here at Silverstone. I’m just fed up with making excuses.
“We weren’t quick enough here today and when it was dry the Mercedes was a lot quicker even if we were better in the slippery conditions.
“But there are still a lot of positives, so we need to keep working as a team even if we know we’ve thrown away something that should have been ours.”
Two-time champion Fernando Alonso was eighth in the second Aston Martin, ahead of Williams’ Alex Albon and Yuki Tsunoda of RB.
On a day of clouds and intermittent sunshine in central England a crowd of more than 120,000 witnessed three Britons starting their home race at the front of the grid for the first time since 1962.
George Russell started on pole and made a clean start with Hamilton moving in tight behind him to provide protection from Verstappen who had quickly passed Norris.
Russell settled and by lap six led by 1.6 seconds with Hamilton 1.4 seconds ahead of Verstappen and the two McLarens.
By lap 14, rain began to sweep across the old wartime airfield as Norris passed Verstappen to regain third. As the rain intensified, the McLarens came alive and Piastri passed Verstappen on lap 17.
Hamilton then overtook Russell for the lead as both Mercedes slithered in the rain. Norris, revelling in the conditions, passed Russell for second on lap 19 and then powered past Hamilton while Piastri made it a McLaren 1-2, on lap 21.
As the first shower relented, Verstappen was five seconds adrift in fifth. By lap 28, Norris led Hamilton who was trying to preserve his tyres while hanging on to the rapid McLaren.
Russell’s race ended on lap 34 when he was called in to pit and retire the car with a hydraulic problem.
With 15 to go, Hamilton reported that “the sun’s coming out” before on lap 39 he, Verstappen and Piastri pitted together. Norris pitted a lap later losing the lead to Hamilton who measured his final stint to perfection, ending 56 winless races to a tumultuous home reception.
Hamilton wept as he fell into the arms of his father as the home crowd roared.
Mercedes lock out front of the grid
George Russell beat Lewis Hamilton to secure pole as their Mercedes team reeled off a front row lockout in Saturday’s tense qualifying session for Sunday’s British Grand Prix.
The two Britons were given a wild ovation by the crowd who saw a third Briton Lando Norris of McLaren take third to deliver the first one-two-three by British drivers at their home race.
It was the first British triple top in qualifying at any race since the 1968 South African Grand Prix.
Russell grabbed pole in one minute and 25.819 seconds to beat seven-time champion Hamilton by 0.171 seconds in the final minute as the track improved, the trio leaving series leader and three-time champion Max Verstappen to qualify fourth in his slightly damaged Red Bull.
Oscar Piastri was fifth in the second McLaren ahead of Nico Hulkenberg of Haas, Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz, Lance Stroll of Aston Martin, Alex Albon of Williams and two-time champion Fernando Alonso in the second Aston Martin.
Norris admitted that he had made a mistake on his final lap, which led to him aborting it, while Hamilton said it was a “huge” reward for the team for their work to recover competitive form and congratulated Russell.
Russell said that it was down to the Silverstone fans who had braved miserable weather to see a British triumph.
“What a crowd and what energy!” he said over the team radio. Later the winner in Austria last time out added: “What a feeling, at the start of this year I don’t think we could of even dreamt of being on pole here, one-two for me and Lewis, and Lando it’s just mega.”
After a morning of blustery winds and heavy intermittent rain, not to mention a lively rumour mill, the session began in watery sunshine.
The luckless Sergio Perez, on softs, spun off into the gravel at Copse and out of the session in his Red Bull.
His future with the team was the subject of much speculation beforehand and this intensified with this latest misfortune. It was his third Q1 exit of the season after similar in Monaco and Canada.
Perez had contributed only 15 points for Red Bull from the last five races – they totalled 116 thanks to Verstappen – and this prompted McLaren boss Zak Brown to suggest his fallibility was enabling McLaren to bid for the teams’ title.
The Q1 session was red-flagged for nine minutes before the action resumed with Sauber’s Valtteri Bottas going top by five seconds before others on slicks clocked improved ‘slick’ times as rain approached.
In the midst of this, Verstappen went off at Copse, but recovered, falling to an endangered 15th before responding in a frantic finale which saw Bottas, Kevin Magnussen of Haas, Alpine’s Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly eliminated along with Perez.
The Williams cars led the way into Q2, Logan Sargeant under pressure to keep his seat, with all on slicks. On his first run, Verstappen, carrying damage, was only seventh as Norris and then Alonso set the pace ahead of Sainz and Hamilton.
In drying conditions, Sainz, Piastri Hulkenberg, Russell and Norris went top as everyone improved, Verstappen falling to 11th from where he rescued himself to go sixth.
A late surge by Stroll saw Leclerc drop to 11th and miss Q3 along with Sargeant, RB’s Yuki Tsunoda, Zhou Guanyu of Sauber and Daniel Ricciardo in the second RB.
Albon, Verstappen and Piastri were first out for Q3, as the sun struggled to shine, but it was the British trio again, Russell, Norris and Hamilton who topped the first flying runs ahead of Piastri and Verstappen.
Russell led by 0.006 seconds, a blink, as they returned on fresh rubber for the final laps when after Norris pulled out to pit and Russell went top in a Mercedes one-two, with Norris third and Verstappen fourth.
It was the first time three British drivers had taken the top three places in qualifying at their home event and for Russell the second pole of the season, having done the same a week earlier in Austria.
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