SILVERSTONE, England — Lewis Hamilton gained a dramatic British Grand Prix in blended circumstances, ending a victory drought that stretched again to the 2021 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.
The Mercedes driver beat his outdated foe Max Verstappen to the win by 1.4 seconds, and in doing so took his ninth win on residence soil at Silverstone — essentially the most for any driver at a single circuit in Formulation One historical past.
An emotional Hamilton mentioned afterwards: “I can not cease crying. I do know it has been since 2021, every single day getting up attempting to place my thoughts to the duty and work as laborious as I can with this wonderful group, and that is my final race right here on the British Grand Prix, so I needed to win this a lot for them.
He added: “It is so powerful, I believe for anybody. I believe the essential factor is the way you proceed to stand up and proceed to dig deep even if you really feel such as you’re on the backside of the barrel.
“I imply there have positively been days between 2021 and right here once I did not really feel like I used to be ok or whether or not I used to be going to get again to the place I’m right now, however the essential factor is I had nice folks round me persevering with to help me, my group, each time I flip up and see them placing within the effort, that actually inspired me to do the identical factor.”
Hamilton’s lengthy watch for his 104th F1 victory stretches again to his title battle with Verstappen in 2021.
The seven-time world champion misplaced out on each the championship and a race win in controversial circumstances on the closing race of 2021, with Mercedes then struggling to offer him a profitable automobile beneath a brand new set of rules launched in 2022.
Hamilton is because of go away Mercedes for Ferrari on the finish of the yr after 12 years on the group.
Behind Hamilton, Verstappen overtook Lando Norris for second place with 4 laps remaining and initially seemed like he may catch the Mercedes as nicely.
For almost all of the 52-lap race, Verstappen seemed out of rivalry for the victory, however his automobile got here alive with a swap to the laborious compound tyres at his closing pit cease.
Norris and Hamilton opted for smooth tyres, which proved quick initially however quickly dropped off in efficiency, permitting Verstappen to move the McLaren and near inside 1.4 seconds of the lead on the chequered flag.
Verstappen mentioned: “We simply did not have the tempo right now, I used to be slowly dropping again when it mattered initially.
“It didn’t look nice in some unspecified time in the future, I used to be actually pondering: ‘Are we gonna end fifth, sixth?’ The decision from the group to be on the laborious tyre on the finish as an alternative of the smooth was positively serving to me out. That is why I believe we completed second right now, it may have been so much worse, we’re making the precise calls and we nonetheless acquired onto the rostrum and I am after all proud of that.”
– Unlapped: Take heed to ESPN’s F1 podcast
Norris will see Sunday’s race as one other missed alternative after taking the lead on Lap 20 within the midst of the primary rain bathe.
Mario Renzi – Formulation 1/Formulation 1 through Getty Photographs
He led by way of the primary spherical of pit stops, which noticed the lead drivers swap to rain tyres, however pitted a lap later than the others to modify again to slicks and misplaced monitor place to Hamilton consequently.
He additionally handed up the chance to modify to the medium compound tyre for his closing stint, which, with the advantage of hindsight, would have been a more sensible choice as teammate Oscar Piastri used the medium to set the quickest lap within the closing phases on his technique to fourth place.
The Briton mentioned: “It was powerful. It was satisfying, it was enjoyable, battling these guys and these tough circumstances are on a knife edge and also you’re risking so much. So many issues good, however a couple of too many let-downs right now, and as a group I do not assume we did fairly the job we must always have achieved or ok, however nonetheless beautiful to be on the rostrum right here at Silverstone.
“I am not making the precise choices, on the identical time I blame myself right now for not making a number of the proper choices. I hate it. I hate ending on this place and everybody having excuses for not doing a ok job however I am nonetheless comfortable, I am nonetheless going to get pleasure from it, we nonetheless did so many issues proper.”
Piastri was additionally the sufferer of a poorly timed pit cease earlier within the race after McLaren switched him to wet-weather tyres a lap later than his rivals, dropping him from second place to sixth.
Carlos Sainz was the highest-placed Ferrari driver, in fifth forward of Haas’ Nico Hulkenberg in sixth, the 2 Aston Martins of Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso in seventh and eighth.
Alex Albon secured ninth place for Williams on the group’s residence race forward of Yuki Tsunoda in tenth for RB.
Hamilton’s teammate George Russell, who began from pole place, retired from the race with a suspected water system challenge on Lap 33 after dropping from the result in fourth place within the moist climate.