Lewis Hamilton Storms To Record-Breaking Ninth Win At Silverstone

Lewis Hamilton won the 75th edition of the British Grand Prix. The seven time world champion thus ends a barren spell that lasted 945 days, since the 2021 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. He now has 104 Formula 1 wins to his name, nine of them in this race, thus topping the list of drivers with the most wins at one particular Grand Prix. For his Mercedes team it is win number 127, its second in a row, the first time the team has managed that in almost three years, as the last time it happened was in 2021, when the Toto Wolff-led team won in Brazil and then at the aforementioned next round in Saudi Arabia.

Hamilton becomes the first driver to win a Grand Prix in 16 different seasons, and he is the first driver to win a Grand Prix after making 300 starts.

It is also Lewis’s 12th consecutive British Grand Prix podium and his 150th podium with Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team.

Joining Hamilton on the podium were second-placed Max Verstappen (Red Bull Racing) and in third, Lando Norris (McLaren). All three men wore a special edition of the classic Pirelli podium cap, specially made in tweed for the Silverstone round.

For Pirelli, this was a very colourful Grand Prix, a four colour one to be precise, as four tyre compounds with their distinctive colour bands were brought into play – red for the Soft, yellow for the Medium, white for the Hard and green for the Intermediate and all four did in fact play an important role in a race where the track switched from dry to wet and back again and with temperatures that varied by around ten degrees depending on what the weather was doing.

The first part featured the Medium, used by 17 drivers on the grid, the exceptions being Ocon and Zhou, who opted for the Soft while, starting from pitlane, Perez went with the Hard. The C2 worked well, because the drivers were able to push even when carrying a full fuel load, while it also enabled them to manage the tricky conditions when the rain started to fall. Furthermore, the Medium ensured greater flexibility as to when to make the first pit stop, given that the threat of rain had made itself felt even before the start.

Then it was the turn of the Intermediate to take centre stage, when the crossover point arrived. Leclerc and Perez had chosen to switch to this tyre early and now found themselves with a set of worn tyres just when the track conditions were most suited to them and they had to come in for a second set. In fact, there was never as much water on track as there had been yesterday in FP3 and that meant this type of tyre was obviously going to wear much more quickly as the track had then dried out. The final part saw all three dry weather compounds compete on equal terms and it was interesting to observe how, especially among the leaders, the various car-driver packages were comfortable with different compounds: Hamilton took the win for Mercedes with the Soft, Verstappen and his Red Bull was quickest on the Hard, while Piastri demonstrated that the Medium could be very competitive on the McLaren.

Lewis Hamilton – 1st

‘Today means so much. It is the most incredible honour to be standing on the top step of the podium here at Silverstone. I think my heart is still racing! We’ve had so many amazing times here and today was the most emotional end to a win I’ve ever had. It has been a really challenging few years for everyone in the team. Knowing how hard everyone has worked to fight back, I think it was a real release of emotion. I am forever grateful to everyone in this team, to Mercedes, and to all our partners. To finally succeed is the greatest feeling I remember having.’

Max Verstappen – 2nd

“It was difficult today to manage especially with the rain, but looking at pure performance we were too slow in the first stint and overall struggled with tyre degradation. At one point it was looking like we might finish P5 or P6, but we made all of the right calls, especially with pitstops, and that put us back into contention. When it started to rain we didn’t want to take too much risk as I was already struggling with grip, and the Team also put the hard tyre on at the end and that definitely saved my race as I was the only one on the hard tyre and was able to really push. Out of a tough situation we still finished second, and extended our Championship leads, and that of course is a very strong result for us. We’re halfway through the season now and we have a bit of work to do still to finish the season where we want to be.”

Lando Norris – 3rd

“It was a tough race but very enjoyable. A big congratulations to Lewis Hamilton, he executed his race well, so hats off to him and Mercedes. It was a lot of fun battling these guys in these conditions, and you’re always on a knife-edge when you’re risking a lot. We did many good things this weekend but there are also lots of things to review. This is the place I would love to have everything go perfectly and it just didn’t today – but it is still lovely to be on the podium here at Silverstone. We’ll come back stronger next race and next year and try again.”

Toto Wolff, Mercedes Team Principal & CEO

‘Today’s win is like a fairytale. It is our last British Grand Prix together with Lewis and what a way to sign off. It is such a great feeling to be able to achieve victory in front of the British crowds with the most iconic, and most successful British driver in a Mercedes.

‘Last week’s win was fortuitous. Today, we were quick in almost all conditions. We were running first and second for a long time and, although the McLarens were quick when the rain fell, we were able to get back ahead of them. It is a win on merit, and it shows the grit of this team. We never stopped believing, we never stopped working, and we have been able to unlock the potential in the car. We are now on a roll.

‘George was unfortunate today. He has been so strong recently and took a fantastic pole position yesterday. Sadly, we had to retire his car with a water system issue. He would have likely been in position to fight for the win were it not for that.’

Andrew Shovlin, Mercedes Trackside Engineering Director

‘It was absolutely fantastic to see Lewis win today. The crowd here make it extra special, and it was an amazing drive. It’s barely believable that it’s been so long since we last won a race with Lewis and now, we’ve just won two weekends in a row as a team.

‘It was a difficult race for George. We were monitoring a cooling system on his car from the early laps and unfortunately that got to a stage where we had to retire the car. He can hold his head up high though. He put together a fantastic lap to take pole position and showed that he had the pace to control the race in stint one.

‘The last few months have seen the whole team working flat out to improve the car. What we have achieved in a short space of time is incredible. We’ll enjoy this moment as it’s very special but with two races to go before the summer break, we’ll keep pushing to bring performance as we continue to get our championship back on track.’

Mario Isola – Pirelli Director of Motorsport

“We witnessed a very exciting Grand Prix at the end of a very busy weekend, which featured a great show both on the track and in the grandstands. It was a testing weekend for us because we put almost our entire range of tyres to the test in different conditions on one of the toughest tracks of the entire championship calendar.

Right from Friday it was evident that all three dry weather compounds could play an important role in this race and that was confirmed today. In terms of strategy, the pre-race predictions were more or less respected. Leaving aside the rain, the length of the first stint on the Mediums and the performance of the Hard for those like Verstappen and Sainz who used them in the final stint, demonstrated how a C2/C1 combination could be very competitive. Obviously, the C3 suffered a bit more, partly because it was used in push mode towards the end of the race on a track that was still pretty green because of all the rain this weekend.”

Formula 2

The Marseillaise rang out from the podium in recognition of a win and the championship lead for Isaak Hadjar. Having started from pole position, Campos Racing’s French driver lost some places off the line but then fought back to cross the finish line in second place. He was then promoted to winner when the American Jak Crawford (DAMS Lucas Oil), who had taken the chequered flag first, was given a five second penalty. That meant second place went to the Barbadian Zane Maloney (Rodin Motorsport). Hadjar now leads the championship on 133 points, 16 more than Paul Aron (Hitech Pulse-Eight), who failed to score at Silverstone, while Maloney is third on 101.

On the tyre front, there was a pretty even split between the Soft and the Hard at the start, with ten drivers preferring the red compound and twelve going for the white. The difference in grip played a key role when it came to overtaking, in favour of the softer tyre, although its performance advantage only lasted five or six laps. As for the Hard, the key was managing graining across the front axle in order to limit degradation.

Formula 3

Arvid Lindblad did the double in Formula 3 this weekend, winning the Feature Race this morning, having claimed victory in yesterday’s Sprint. Today’s race was affected by changing weather conditions. As was the case in F2, so too in the junior category the winner was not actually the driver first past the finish line: the chequered flag was waved for Callum Voisin (Rodin Motorsport), who then was given a penalty which dropped him to third. In second place was Gabriele Minì, thus making it a one-two finish for Prema Racing, which puts the Italian in the lead of the championship on 119 points, six more than his team-mate and seven more than Luke Browning (Hitech Pulse-Eight), eighth today. As for the tyres, their performance was dictated by rapid changes in the weather. All things considered, the track conditions were mainly best suited to the slicks and these tyres therefore made the difference, which explains why the top three finishers only used this type of tyre. The various safety car periods often brought those drivers who had started on wet tyres back into the mix, but those who then switched to slicks were able to make up places.