Formula 1 News: Hamilton wins a record 9th British GP

British fan favorite Lewis Hamilton drove a magnificent race to win his record 9th British GP at Silverstone, holding off a charging Max Verstappen’s Red Bull by 1.465 seconds in his Mercedes.

–by Mark Cipolloni–

Verstappen on hard tires and Hamilton on the deteriorating soft red tires had the fans on their feet as Verstappen needed a couple more laps to catch him.

The race started in the dry, it then rained during the middle segment and the track then dried for the final 12 laps.

It was Hamilton’s first race win since the 2021 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix and his 104th career win. The crowd love that, Mercedes love that, and you get the sense a lot of the drivers will love that too.

“It means a lot to get this one,” says an evidently emotional Hamilton over the team radio.

“This one means a lot to us all,” said Hamilton’s race engineer Pete Bonnington, also clearly feeling the emotion of it all.

“I love you Bono,” the seven-time world champion replied. This is going to be such a special day for Mercedes and Hamilton – with the driver off to Ferrari next season – regardless of all the success that has come before.

“I can’t stop crying,” said a happy Hamilton. “Since 2021, every day 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 and 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, I appreciate them so much – all the hard work they’ve been putting in over these years.

“I’m forever grateful to everyone in this team, everyone in Mercedes and all our partners. And to all our incredible fans – I can see you lap by lap as I was coming round. There’s just no greater feeling as to finish at the front here.”

Verstappen passed title rival Lando Norris, also on deteriorating soft red tires, with 5 laps to go, and the charge was on, but time ran out and Hamilton took a well-deserved win, managing the tire degradation perfectly.

“We just didn’t have the pace today,” said Verstappen. “I was slowly dropping back when it mattered at the beginning. It didn’t look great at some point – I was really thinking are we going to finish fifth or sixth? But we made the right calls. Going from the slicks to the inters and also from the inters back to the slicks – I think it was every time the right lap.

“Also, at the end the call from the team to be on the hard tire instead of the soft was definitely helping me out. That’s why we also finished second today. It could have been a lot worse, but with making the right calls we still got onto the podium, and I’m of course, very happy with that.”

“First of all, congrats to Lewis,” said a disappointed Norris. “That crucial decision at the end, he just did a better job. Hats off to him and Mercedes, so they deserve it.

“It was tough. It was enjoyable, it was fun battling these guys. These tricky conditions are always on a knife edge and you’re risking a lot. So many things good, but a few too many letdowns today and as a team I don’t think we quite did the job we should have done, or good enough. But still lovely to be on the podium here at Silverstone.”

By passing Norris for 2nd, Verstappen extended his point lead over Norris to 84 points, 255 to 171. Charles Leclerc is third with 150 points, 105 behind Verstappen. Carlos Sainz Jr. is gaining on his Ferrari teammate with 146 points, just 4 back.

Oscar Piastri came home 4th in the 2nd McLaren while Carlos Sainz Jr. rounded out the top-5 for Ferrari.  Sainz made a late stop for soft red tires and got the one point for fastest lap.

Nico Hülkenberg came home 6th for Haas, the same place he started.

Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso were P7 and P8. Aston Martin will be delighted to get back into points-scoring form.

Alex Albon overcame his early damage to score points for Williams in ninth while Yuki Tsunoda takes the final points paying position in 10th. Logan Sargeant just missed out on a point in 11th.

Polesitter George Russell retired with a loss of water pressure.

At the half point of the season (race 12 of 24), it was a disappointing outcome for Charles Leclerc. The Ferrari man had earlier made gains but slipped backwards after making an early switch to the intermediate tires, and he eventually crossed the line in P14.

Valtteri Bottas was the lead Kick Sauber in 15th, while Esteban Ocon claimed 16th in a tough day for Alpine. Sergio Perez, meanwhile, faced another tough outing, ending the day down in 17th.

Zhou Guanyu became the final classified runner in P18 for Kick Sauber, while Russell was one of two retirees owing to that aforementioned water system issue.

Are Mercedes back? On this evidence very likely. Russell needed some good fortune to win last time out in Austria but Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes were the stars of the show at Silverstone here – the emotion at the end told you everything.

It’s been a struggle for the team since the ground effect regulations came in and this victory ends a 56-race streak without a win for Hamilton. Had you told someone that in 2021 they’d have laughed you out of the building.

But the Silver Arrows have been on an upward trend over the last few race weekends and this just cements that progress. This victory was earned on pace and not the luck of the top two taking each other out, as was the case last weekend. This win feels like a bit of a statement.

We’ve had an absolutely dynamite triple header of races, with three different race winners in that time. This is also shaping up to be a special season as we’ve now had six different race winners in 2024.

Hungary is up next in two weeks.

2024 British GP Results – 52 Laps