SILVERSTONE, England — Lewis Hamilton won a dramatic British Grand Prix in mixed conditions, ending a victory drought that stretched back to the 2021 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.
The Mercedes driver beat old foe Max Verstappen to victory by 1.4 seconds, claiming his ninth home win at Silverstone – the most victories for a driver at a single circuit in Formula 1 history.
An emotional Hamilton said afterwards: “I can’t stop crying. I know it’s been since 2021 that I’ve been getting up every day trying to focus on the task and work as hard as I can with this incredible team, and this is my last race here with this incredible team at the British Grand Prix with this team, so I wanted to win for them so badly.
He added: “I think it’s very difficult for everyone. I think the important thing is to keep getting back up and digging deep even when you feel like you’re at rock bottom.
“I mean there were definitely days between 2021 and now where I didn’t feel like I was good enough or if I was going to get back to where I am today, but the important thing is I had great people around me that continued to support me and my team, every time I showed up and I saw them putting in the effort, it really encouraged me to do the same.”
Hamilton’s long wait for his 104th F1 win dates back to his title battle with Verstappen in 2021.
The seven-time world champion lost both the championship and a race win in controversial circumstances at the final race of 2021, with Mercedes struggling to provide him with a race-winning car under a new set of regulations introduced in 2022.
Hamilton is expected to leave Mercedes for Ferrari at the end of the year after 12 years with the team.
Behind Hamilton, Verstappen passed Lando Norris for second with four laps to go and initially looked set to catch the Mercedes as well.
For most of the 52-lap race Verstappen looked out of contention for victory, but his car was revived by switching to hard tyres during his final pit stop.
Norris and Hamilton opted for soft tyres, which proved quick at first but quickly lost performance, allowing Verstappen to pass the McLaren and close to within 1.4 seconds of the lead at the chequered flag.
Verstappen said: “We just didn’t have the pace today, I slowly lost ground when it mattered in the beginning.
“At one point it wasn’t going so well. I was really wondering: are we going to finish fifth, sixth? The team’s decision to put the hard tyres at the end instead of the softs really helped me. That’s why I think we finished second today. It could have been a lot worse, we made the right decisions and we still got on the podium. I’m happy about that of course.”
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Norris will view Sunday’s race as another missed opportunity after taking the lead on lap 20 amid the first downpour.
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He led the first round of pit stops, during which the leading drivers pitted for wet tyres, but he stopped a lap later than the others to revert to slicks and lost track positions to Hamilton.
He also passed up the opportunity to switch to the medium tyre for his final stint, which in hindsight would have been a better choice as his team-mate Oscar Piastri used the medium to set the fastest lap in the closing minutes en route to fourth place.
The Briton said: “It was tough. It was enjoyable, it was fun, battling these guys and these tough conditions, it’s on a knife edge and you’re risking a lot. There were so many good things, but there were a few disappointments today, and as a team I don’t think we did all the work we should have done or well enough, but it’s still nice to be on the podium here at Silverstone.”
“I don’t make the right decisions, and at the same time I blame myself today for not having made some good decisions. I hate it. I hate ending up in this position and everyone having excuses for not having done a good job, but I’m still happy, I’m still going to enjoy it, we still did so many things well.”
Piastri was also the victim of a poorly timed pit stop earlier in the race after McLaren put him on wet tyres a lap later than his rivals, dropping him from second to sixth.
Carlos Sainz was the best placed Ferrari driver in fifth ahead of Haas’ Nico Hulkenberg in sixth, with the two Aston Martins of Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso in seventh and eighth.
Alex Albon secured ninth place for Williams in the team’s home race ahead of Yuki Tsunoda in tenth for RB.
Hamilton’s team-mate George Russell, who started from pole position, retired from the race with a suspected water system problem on lap 33 after dropping from the lead to fourth in the rain.
