Hamilton beats Verstappen to first win since 2021 with record-breaking 9th British Grand Prix victory
Lewis Hamilton has claimed a long-awaited and record-breaking ninth British Grand Prix victory in a thrilling race at Silverstone, with the Mercedes driver holding off a challenge from Lando Norris to take the win.
While pole-sitter George Russell had led away from Hamilton as the event got underway, an exciting battle soon unfolded between the two Mercedes cars and the McLaren pair of Norris and Oscar Piastri amid changing weather conditions.
The lead changed hands as the field began to switch to intermediate tyres after the opening phase of the race, before the skies later became dry and Hamilton capitalised from pitting for slicks one lap before Norris – who also faced a slow pit stop – to become the new race leader.
While Russell retired with a water system issue – and Max Verstappen snatched P2 from Norris in the latter stages – Hamilton held position to clinch an emotional victory, a record ninth win in a single Grand Prix and his first P1 result since the 2021 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.
Despite looking increasingly quick on the hard tyres in the final laps, Verstappen did not have enough time to fight for the lead and crossed the line in P2 for Red Bull, while Norris completed the podium in third.
The other McLaren of Piastri took fourth, ahead of Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz in fifth and an impressive Nico Hulkenberg in sixth for Haas. It was a better weekend than of late for Aston Martin, with Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso finishing in seventh and eighth respectively, while Alex Albon scored two valuable points for Williams in ninth.
Yuki Tsunoda rounded out the top-10 for RB, with Logan Sargeant just missing out for Williams in P11 from Haas’s Kevin Magnussen in P12, and RB’s Daniel Ricciardo followed in P13.
It was a disappointing outcome for Charles Leclerc. The Ferrari man had earlier made gains but slipped backwards after making an early switch to the intermediate tyres, and he eventually crossed the line in P14.
Valtteri Bottas was the lead Kick Sauber in 15th, while Esteban Ocon claimed 16th in a tough day for Alpine. Sergio Perez, meanwhile, faced another tough outing, ending the day down in 17th.
Zhou Guanyu became the final classified runner in P18 for Kick Sauber, while Russell was one of two retirees owing to that aforementioned water system issue.
Pierre Gasly also failed to make the finish, having returned to the pits at the end of the formation lap. It later transpired that the Alpine had been suffering with a gearbox problem.
