This was his last home start for Mercedes. In the 2025 season, the Briton will represent the Ferrrari team, where he will replace Spaniard Carlos Sainz Jr.
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Second place went to the defending champion and overall leader this season, Dutchman Max Verstappen from Red Bull, with Briton Lando Norris from McLaren in third.
Hamilton, 39, claimed his first F1 victory in… 945 days. He previously triumphed for the 103rd time in his career on December 5, 2021, in Saudi Arabia. Since then, in 57 F1 races, he has never been the fastest.
The fact that the Silverstone race might be a success for the Mercedes team was already indicated by Saturday’s qualifying, where George Russell triumphed in the fight for pole position, with Hamilton second. Only the fourth lap time was achieved by the defending champion and leader in the general classification, Verstappen (Red Bull).
After the start, two Mercedes drivers remained in the lead, with Verstappen moving up to third. Behind the top three were two McLaren drivers – Norris and Oscar Piastri. Already on the third lap, Frenchman Pierre Gasly from Alpine withdrew due to technical problems. After a few laps, leader Russell had an advantage of over 3 seconds over Verstappen. And behind the world champion appeared Norris, who tried to attack him.
Finally, on lap 15 (52 laps completed) Norris overtook the Dutchman and moved up to third place. A moment later, the world champion was overtaken by Australian Oscar Piastri from McLaren. After changing tires, when it started to rain on the track, leader Russell came in for a tire change and… never returned to the track. It turned out that his car had a cooling system failure, and the Briton had to retire.
Norris was leading, followed by Hamilton, 2 seconds behind. When the McLaren driver pitted for a tire change, Hamilton took the lead on lap 40 and never gave it back until the finish line. Verstappen sped up following changing tires, overtook Norris three laps before the finish line, and even achieved the fastest lap time, but Hamilton didn’t let him surprise him. He won for the 104th time in his career.
The seven-time F1 champion beat defending champion Verstappen by 1.5 seconds. “I love you,” a tearful Hamilton told his team over the radio, with 164,000 fans cheering the Briton’s victory.
The next round of the F1 World Championship, the Hungarian Grand Prix, will be held on July 21.
BS, PAP
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