Thrilling British GP rewards Hamilton with emotional record ...

Lewis Hamilton returned to vintage form, stunning in a thrilling British Grand Prix for the ages to claim his first victory since 2021 ahead of Max Verstappen and a disappointed McLaren outfit.

Hamilton was brought to tears of joy after crossing the line to claim a record-breaking victory at Silverstone, a sentiment Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris may have shared, however, not because of overwhelming joy.

Self-sabotaged by a logic-lacking call to extend his stint on the medium tyre, Piastri’s British Grand Prix podium hopes were ripped out from underneath him as the weather struck the Silverstone Circuit.

Before that decisive moment, Piastri had worked hard to maintain his starting position off the line.

The #81 remained within DRS range of his teammate for the opening 13 laps, pressuring Norris to make an impression on Max Verstappen who had earlier gotten the jump on the #4.

Having the best seat in the house to watch Norris dispose of Verstappen, Piastri was quick to replicate his teammate’s move down the inside of Stowe, promoting his McLaren in P4 while balancing the changing conditions.

As the rain intensified, the Australian’s next two targets were the Mercedes duo, a pairing he made light work of to sit at the back of a temporary McLaren 1-2.

Getting the go-ahead to race his teammate, Piastri put his foot to the floor to chase his race-leading teammate down, running under a second behind on Lap 26.

His active hunt lasted for only two laps longer as Norris was called in to make the switch to the intermediate tyre, a moment that hung Piastri out to dry on the slower slick tyre.

Relishing in the accolade of becoming the new race leader was a tough ask as the #81 was left skating around the 5.9km circuit for one additional lap, with McLaren’s hesitancy to perform a double-stacked pitstop ending their chances of what almost certainly would have been a double podium.

With the average pit-loss time at Silverstone being 25 seconds, under normal circumstances an interval of a similar length would have been observed as Norris rejoined the race, however, today’s conditions threw a spanner in the works, one in which McLaren should have anticipated.

With this not being the case, Piastri had a blazing Norris, Hamilton and Russell already three seconds behind as he pulled into the pits just 18 corners later.

He rejoined the race behind Carlos Sainz, running in P6 while the rain continued to fall.

By Lap 33, whatever mental hurdle Piastri had to jump, he’d done so swiftly as he began forming an attack on the Ferrari driver, however, withholding to manage his rapidly degrading intermediate tyres. 

The weather had soon eased up, with the track coming into slick tyre conditions prompting movement in the pitlane. 

Piastri followed Verstappen’s lead on Lap 39, pulling in for a set of fresh medium tyres — ultimately, the correct compound to be on in the closing stages of the 52-lap race.

The new compound gave Piastri an instant pace advantage which saw him set the fastest lap of a 1:28.748s on Lap 41 until a late soft-tyre charge from Sainz retracted the extra point.

The Australian was forced to settle for a fourth-place finish, crossing the line over 12 seconds behind the race winner.

As for Piastri’s compatriot, Daniel Ricciardo had a very stagnant race, only inheriting positions due to strategy errors from the likes of Sergio Perez and Charles Leclerc’s pit walls, as well as George Russell’s retirement on Lap 34. 

The RB driver was slow off the line, allowing Zhou Guanyu to slip past into Abbey. 

He remained in touch, however, tussling with the Sauber as well as involving himself in a minor incident with Alex Albon across the first lap.

It wasn’t until Lap 7 that Ricciardo cemented his place in P14, passing Zhou down the Wellington Straight before instantly breaking DRS. 

After losing a position to Kevin Magnussen, the weather forced Ricciardo to make the switch to the intermediate tyre on Lap 27, joined by his nearby competitors meaning he exited the pitlane still in P14. 

The RB driver was quiet until he made his next pitstop, this time for a slick set of soft tyres with the intervals around him also remaining unchanged.

On Lap 51, Ricciardo was tasked with letting the leader by, moving out of Lewis Hamilton’s way before taking the chequered flag himself in a bland P13. 

Hamilton’s incredibly thrilling race to victory was anything but bland, however, marking the British Grand Prix a highlight of the first half of the season in vintage Hamilton fashion.

Locking out the front row in yesterday’s wet-dry qualifying session, it was Hamilton versus Russell as they angled their silver arrows aimed towards one another in their grid slots.

As the five lights went out, Russell covered his teammate off, guiding the grid through a relatively clean start at his home circuit.  

The teammates disappeared into the distance, putting a decent interval between themselves and Verstappen before the looming rain clouds unloaded on Lap 15.

With the race leader slowly crumbling in the damp conditions, the veteran of all situations capitalised.

Hamilton tentatively passed the #63 into Stowe, carrying on before both he and Russell ran wide at Village. 

The teammates rejoined the track ahead of Lando Norris, with their fellow Briton deeming their entry unsafe before passing Russell and taking the lead through Copse. 

Norris worked to build a three-second gap over the #44, an interval that soon became irrelevant after a poor pitstop from the McLaren driver rewarded Hamilton with the lead.

Coming into the pitlane on overworked intermediate tyres, Norris’ MCL38 slid beyond his mark as he attempted to brake in his pit box, adding to the 24-year-old’s time spent stationary as they fitted him with his own choice of tyre compound, the soft tyre which proved to be the wrong choice.

Norris held on to Hamilton for as long as he could before his attack switched to defending from Verstappen behind. 

With five laps to go in the McLaren driver’s home race, Verstappen came even closer to ruining his dreams of a home win.

The Dutchman clawed his way into Norris’ DRS range, utilising the advantage down the Hangar straight and around the outside of Stowe to steal second place.

The three-second interval between Hamilton and Verstappen was more than enough to help seal Lewis Hamilton an extremely emotional 104th victory, ninth British Grand Prix victory, and the record for most wins at a single circuit as he crossed the line.

The teary #44 sent the crowd into a frenzy, circling back to parc ferme waving the flag of Great Britain, headlining a race for the ages. 

With one weekend off before the field heads to Budapest for the Hungarian Grand Prix, Hamilton will have more than enough time to properly celebrate his victory, a long time coming since his last win at the 2021 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.

Action around the Hungaroring will run across July 19-21, with FP1 kicking off at 9:30 PM on the 19th.

Image: Andy Hone / LAT Images

British Grand Prix Results:

POS NO DRIVER CAR LAPS TIME/RETIRED PTS 1 44 Lewis Hamilton MERCEDES 52 1:22:27.059 25 2 1 Max Verstappen RED BULL RACING HONDA RBPT 52 +1.465s 18 3 4 Lando Norris MCLAREN MERCEDES 52 +7.547s 15 4 81 Oscar Piastri MCLAREN MERCEDES 52 +12.429s 12 5 55 Carlos Sainz FERRARI 52 +47.318s 11 6 27 Nico Hulkenberg HAAS FERRARI 52 +55.722s 8 7 18 Lance Stroll ASTON MARTIN ARAMCO MERCEDES 52 +56.569s 6 8 14 Fernando Alonso ASTON MARTIN ARAMCO MERCEDES 52 +63.577s 4 9 23 Alexander Albon WILLIAMS MERCEDES 52 +68.387s 2 10 22 Yuki Tsunoda RB HONDA RBPT 52 +79.303s 1 11 2 Logan Sargeant WILLIAMS MERCEDES 52 +88.960s 0 12 20 Kevin Magnussen HAAS FERRARI 52 +90.153s 0 13 3 Daniel Ricciardo RB HONDA RBPT 51 +1 lap 0 14 16 Charles Leclerc FERRARI 51 +1 lap 0 15 77 Valtteri Bottas KICK SAUBER FERRARI 51 +1 lap 0 16 31 Esteban Ocon ALPINE RENAULT 50 +2 laps 0 17 11 Sergio Perez RED BULL RACING HONDA RBPT 50 +2 laps 0 18 24 Zhou Guanyu KICK SAUBER FERRARI 50 +2 laps 0 NC 63 George Russell MERCEDES 33 DNF 0 NC 10 Pierre Gasly ALPINE RENAULT 0 DNS 0

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