Lewis Hamilton made history at the British Grand Prix, securing his ninth victory at the iconic circuit and ending his 14-month win drought.
The Mercedes driver beat Max Verstappen by 1.4 seconds, setting a new record for most wins at a single circuit in Formula One history.
Hamilton was overcome with emotion, saying: “I can’t stop crying.
In a post-race interview, Hamilton reflected on his journey, saying: “I know it’s been since 2021, every day getting up trying to put my mind to the task and work as hard as I can with this amazing team, and this is my last race here at the British Grand Prix, so I wanted to win this so much for them.”
He added: “It’s so tough, I think for anyone. I think the important thing is how you continue to get up and continue to dig deep even when you feel like you’re at the bottom of the barrel.”
“I mean there have definitely been days between 2021 and here when I didn’t feel like I was good enough or whether I was going to get back to where I am today, but the important thing is I had great people around me continuing to support me, my team, every time I turn up and see them putting in the effort, that really encouraged me to do the same thing.”
Hamilton’s long wait for his 104th F1 victory stretches back to his title battle with Verstappen in 2021.
Hamilton is due to leave Mercedes for Ferrari at the end of the year after 12 years at the team.
Behind Hamilton, Verstappen overtook Lando Norris for second place with four laps remaining and initially looked like he might catch the Mercedes as well.
Verstappen commented on his performance, praising his team’s strategic call to switch to hard tyres.
“We just didn’t have the pace today, I was slowly dropping back when it mattered at the beginning. It did not look great at some point, I was really thinking: ‘Are we gonna finish fifth, sixth?’ The call from the team to be on the hard tyre at the end instead of the soft was definitely helping me out.”
Norris reflected on his performance, acknowledging mistakes but celebrating his podium finish.
“It was tough. It was enjoyable, it was fun, battling these guys and these tricky conditions are on a knife edge and you’re risking a lot. So many things good, but a few too many let-downs today, and as a team I don’t think we did quite the job we should have done or good enough, but still lovely to be on the podium here at Silverstone.”
Hamilton’s teammate George Russell, who started from pole position, retired from the race with a suspected water system issue on Lap 33 after dropping from the lead to fourth place in the wet weather.
