Hamilton clinches emotional Silverstone win at British GP

The 2024 F1 British Grand Prix at Silverstone on Sunday, July 7, was as unpredictable as ever with the rain affected race delivering the sixth individual winner of the season, with Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton providing a hometown victory for the “Brits”.

But it wasn’t all smooth sailing for the hometown favourites, with fellow Mercedes driver and Briton, George Russell, forced to retire the car after a suspected water system failure on lap 34, crushing his dream of winning his home Grand Prix.

Russell had lead the majority of the race before being forced out of the race on lap 34 of the 52 lap Grand Prix.

On the other hand, Lewis Hamilton fans were ecstatic.

The seven-time world champion broke his winning drought of 945 days with a tough home town victory over Red Bull’s Max Verstappen. Hamilton’s last F1 Grand Prix race win was all the way back in 2021, in Saudi Arabia.

Hamilton’s Silverstone win also delivered him the F1 record for the most wins at a single venue with nine wins at Silverstone, and once again proved age is just a number.

An emotional 39-year-old Hamilton said the win was a cathartic career highlight, saying, “I cant stop crying” making reference to the hard fought mental health battles endured since his last win.

With the United Kingdom-born Hamilton heading over to drive for Ferrari next year, the timely win caps a dominant era of Hamilton and Mercedes at Silverstone.

F1 betting pundits who were keen to bet around Verstappen’s dominance and back one of the local hopes, were on good terms with themselves after the British Grand Prix. As much as +1900 was bet about a Hamilton victory early, before being backed in to +225 at start time with the best online bookmakers.

McLaren driver, Lando Norris, was another Brit who at one stage looked capable of a hometown victory at Silverstone, but his race winning chances were burned by poor race strategy from the McLaren team.

Norris, who started on the grid at P3, initially gave up that position early in the race to Verstappen, but was able to reclaim the third place mid-race when Verstappen’s tyres degraded in the “on and off” showery conditions.

McLaren and Norris opted to use the slick tyres in the final stint to cover Hamilton but a slow McLaren pit stop saw Norris emerge behind Hamilton’s Mercedes.

The slick tyres proved to be the wrong choice in the run to the line with Hamilton consolidating his first place, and Verstappen getting the better of Norris late with the Red Bull car running on hard compound tyres.

The Hamilton, Verstappen, Norris Silverstone result was a blowout for favourite punters who had backed Verstappen in to the -208.33 favourite pre-race, with Norris second-elect at +250

Silverstone 2024 British Grand Prix Winners & Losers

The Silverstone Over Achievers

• Oscar Piastri – The Australian was unable to secure a podium finish after he suffered from a poor McLaren pit wall decision to not double stack the pits with Norris as the rain came. The mistake saw Piastri lose about 30 seconds to the field trying to stay on the circuit in the rain while other drivers were already on the intermediate tyres. Piastri is looking closer and closer to his first F1 win provided his team can implement better race strategy..
• Max Verstappen – Started the race in P4, and claimed an early overtake on Norris but subsequently suffered high tyre degradation and fell to as low as P5 before opting for the intermediate tyres. Verstappen and Red Bull made the critical decision at the ideal time to switch to the “inters” which facilitated the Dutchman’s podium finish.
• Lewis Hamilton – The seven-time world champion secured his 104th F1 win and his first win for 945 days. Hamilton’s first F1 win was 17 years ago proving his career longevity and again placing him firmly in “GOAT” (Greatest Of All Time) discussions. Prominent motorsport enthusiast and fellow Brit, Jeremy Clarkson, said pre-race to “always back the old boys in the wet” and 39-year-old Hamilton delivered.

Biggest Silverstone Blunders

• Sergio Perez – “Checo” continued with his poor performance on Sunday after being used as Max’s test dummy on race day. Checo can definitely feel the pressure of the “performance clause” in his contract, and another poor showing has fans wondering when they’ll see a new driver in his seat. Red Bull used Perez to test the intermediate tyres early, giving the team the information to delay switching Verstappen’s car to the same tyres. While there is no confusion that Perez’s seat is definitely the second Red Bull seat, the lack of competitiveness from the Mexican if forcing Red Bull to use his place on the grid to test strategies to benefit Verstappen.
• Charles Leclerc – Through no fault of his own, Leclerc features in this week’s blunders after suffering at the hands of poor Ferrari race strategy yet again. A great start from the Ferrari driver saw him as high as P7, before the first pitstops and taking the fight to the top 6. The Monegasque driver was ordered to the pits on lap 19 to put on intermediate tires, which proved to be far too early. The error saw Leclerc battling for P15 instead of challenging the top five. Leclerc later said, “I’m not feeling good, its too much now”. Unable to openly criticise his team, Leclerc explained post-race, “I don’t even know what to say anymore when I come here”.
• McLaren – The orange team made two horrible race strategy calls this week at Silverstone which lead to P3 and P4 finishes, that at one stage promised P1 and P2 potential except for poor choices. McLaren fans can’t but help feel they should have seen a first time race winner for Piastri, or Norris’ first hometown race win last weekend, but were comprehensively denied. McLaren do have the fastest car on the grid right now, but still need to make better decisions under the pressure of race conditions.

Unexpected Silverstone Arrival

• Nico Hulkenberg – Hulkenberg’s narrow P6 finish behind Carlos Sainz (5th), saw him also finish ahead of the two Aston Martin’s, was the second consecutive P6 finish for Hulkenberg and Haas after achieving the same place in Austria. The Haas team hadn’t produced a consecutive top 6 finish since 2018 at the French and Austrian Grand Prix’s. Should we expect more top 6 appearances for Hulkenberg and his Haas Ferrari? Do they dare dream of a podium finish in what is left of the 2024 F1 season?

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