SILVERSTONE, England — Lewis Hamilton received a dramatic British Grand Prix in combined situations, ending a victory drought that stretched again to the 2021 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.
The Mercedes driver beat his previous foe Max Verstappen to the win by 1.4 seconds, and in doing so took his ninth win on dwelling soil at Silverstone — probably the most for any driver at a single circuit in System One historical past.
An emotional Hamilton mentioned afterwards: “I am unable to cease crying. I do know it has been since 2021, on daily basis getting up making an attempt to place my thoughts to the duty and work as onerous as I can with this wonderful workforce, and that is my final race right here on the British Grand Prix, so I wished to win this a lot for them.
He added: “It is so robust, I feel for anybody. I feel the vital factor is the way you proceed to rise up and proceed to dig deep even while 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 after I did not really feel like I used to be adequate or whether or not I used to be going to get again to the place I’m immediately, however the vital factor is I had nice individuals round me persevering with to assist me, my workforce, each time I flip up and see them placing within the effort, that basically inspired me to do the identical factor.”
Hamilton’s lengthy anticipate 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 remaining race of 2021, with Mercedes then struggling to supply him a successful automotive below a brand new set of laws launched in 2022.
Hamilton is because of depart Mercedes for Ferrari on the finish of the 12 months after 12 years on the workforce.
Behind Hamilton, Verstappen overtook Lando Norris for second place with 4 laps remaining and initially regarded like he would possibly catch the Mercedes as properly.
For almost all of the 52-lap race, Verstappen regarded out of rivalry for the victory, however his automotive got here alive with a change to the onerous compound tyres at his remaining pit cease.
Norris and Hamilton opted for smooth tyres, which proved quick initially however quickly dropped off in efficiency, permitting Verstappen to cross the McLaren and near inside 1.4 seconds of the lead on the chequered flag.
Verstappen mentioned: “We simply did not have the tempo immediately, 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 considering: ‘Are we gonna end fifth, sixth?’ The decision from the workforce to be on the onerous tyre on the finish as an alternative of the smooth was positively serving to me out. That is why I feel we completed second immediately, it may have been rather a lot worse, we’re making the appropriate calls and we nonetheless received onto the rostrum and I am in fact 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.
He led via the primary spherical of pit stops, which noticed the lead drivers change to rain tyres, however pitted a lap later than the others to change again to slicks and misplaced observe place to Hamilton because of this.
He additionally handed up the chance to change to the medium compound tyre for his remaining stint, which, with the advantage of hindsight, would have been a better option as teammate Oscar Piastri used the medium to set the quickest lap within the closing phases on his solution to fourth place.
The Briton mentioned: “It was robust. It was satisfying, it was enjoyable, battling these guys and these difficult situations are on a knife edge and also you’re risking rather a lot. So many issues good, however a number of too many let-downs immediately, and as a workforce I do not suppose we did fairly the job we should always have finished or adequate, however nonetheless beautiful to be on the rostrum right here at Silverstone.
“I am not making the appropriate choices, on the similar time I blame myself immediately 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 adequate job however I am nonetheless joyful, 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 workforce’s dwelling 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 situation on Lap 33 after dropping from the result in fourth place within the moist climate.