Hamilton clinches record British GP win to end victory drought

Lewis Hamilton defeated Max Verstappen and Lando Norris to win the British GP, scoring his first F1 win since the 2021 Saudi Arabian GP. With nine wins at Silverstone, he now also holds the record for the most wins at a single circuit; he previously shared this record with Michael Schumacher, who won eight races at Magny-Cours.

Despite not making it to the top step yet again, Verstappen was, however, able to further stretch his championship lead.

1.     Hamilton wins, 1.465 secs from Verstappen

2.     Verstappen extends title lead to 84 points

Russell retires

Characteristic British weather brought strategy into play and the race saw lead change hands several times. Polesitter George Russell initially held the lead, but Hamilton passed him on Lap 18, just as the rain started coming down. However, McLaren looked even stronger in these conditions and by Lap 20, Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri were running one-two.

Piastri’s victory chances took a hit when McLaren pitted him for fresh intermediate tyres a lap after his closest rivals. As his teammate Norris led from Hamilton, Piastri re-joined the track in sixth place. Austrian GP winner Russell, meanwhile, pulled into the pits to retire on Lap 34 due to a water system failure.

Hamilton wins British GP

With the track drying rapidly, Mercedes got the strategy just right and Hamilton capitalised from pitting for slicks a lap before Norris. Adding further insult to injury, Norris also suffered a slow pit stop.

Both Hamilton and Norris switched to soft tyres, however, Red Bull opted to put Max Verstappen on hards. As Norris struggled on his tyres, Verstappen started closing in and pulled off an easy overtake for P2 through Stowe. Though he was on the quicker tyres, ultimately Verstappen was too far away to challenge Hamilton for the win.

“I can’t stop crying!” said an emotional Hamilton. “It’s been since 2021, every day getting up, trying to fight, to train, to put my mind to the task and work as hard as I can with this amazing team. This is my last race here at the British Grand Prix with this team, so I wanted to win this so much for them, because I love them, I appreciate them so much, all the hard work they’ve been putting in all over these years,”

“I’m forever grateful to everyone in this team, everyone at Mercedes, all of our partners. Otherwise, to all our incredible fans… I could see you lap by lap as I was coming around, and there’s just no greater feeling [than] to finish at the front here.”

Piastri ended up fourth, followed by Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz. On the other side of the Ferrari garage, Charles Leclerc could only salvage a P14 result after making a costly early switch to intermediates.

Nico Hulkenberg scored some valuable points for Haas after finishing P6. The Aston Martin duo of Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso finished P7 and P8 respectively, followed by Williams’ Alex Albon and RB’s Yuki Tsunoda.

2024 F1 championship standings

Verstappen may not have won the race, but he has extended his championship lead to 84 points over Norris. Leclerc is third overall, 21 points behind Norris.

Up next on the F1 calendar is the Hungarian GP on July 19-21.

2024 British GP results

Also see:

Russell wins Austrian GP as Verstappen, Norris clash

New 2026 F1 rules explained: Smaller cars, active aero