Lewis Hamilton wins the British GP for the ninth time
52/52 Into the final corners and what a win for Hamilton, it’s been a long time coming and that will make it all the sweeter. In comes Verstappen, and then Norris. Wild scenes in the Mercedes garage, Toto Wolff close to tears! Rule Britannia.
Key events
Here’s Giles Richards’ full report from Silverstone.
To close, here’s the driver and constructor standings at halfway through the season.
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1. Max Verstappen – 254 points
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2. Lando Norris – 171
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3. Charles Leclerc – 150
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4. Carlos Sainz – 146
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5. Sergio Perez – 118
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6. Oscar Piastri – 127
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7. George Russell – 111
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8. Lewis Hamilton – 110
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9. Fernando Alonso – 45
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10. Lance Stroll – 23
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11. Nico Hulkenberg – 22
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12. Yuki Tsunoda – 20
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13. Daniel Ricciardo – 11
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14. Oliver Bearman – 6
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15. Pierre Gasly – 6
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16. Kevin Magnussen – 5
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17. Alexander Albon – 4
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18. Esteban Ocon – 3
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19. Zhou Guanyu – 0
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20. Valtteri Bottas – 0
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21. Logan Sargeant – 0
Constructors’ Championship standings
There were 945 days that Lewis Hamilton went without a win, and this quote stands out. “But the important thing is how you continue to get up and dig deeper than ever even though you are at the bottom of the barrel and there are days since 2021 where I didn’t feel I was good enough or I would get back to where I am but I have had great people around me.”
The full result
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1. Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes)
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2. Max Verstappen (Red Bull)
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3. Lando Norris (McLaren)
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4. Oscar Piastri (McLaren)
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5. Carlos Sainz (Ferrari)
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6. Nico Hulkenberg (Haas)
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7. Lance Stroll (Aston Martin)
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8. Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin)
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9. Alex Albon (Williams)
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10. Yuki Tsunoda (RB)
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11. Logan Sargeant (Williams)
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12. Kevin Magnussen (Haas)
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13. Daniel Ricciardo (RB)
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14. Charles Leclerc (Ferrari)
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15. Valtteri Bottas (Sauber)
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16. Esteban Ocon (Alpine)
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17. Sergio Perez (Red Bull)
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18. Zhou Guanyu (Sauber)
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DNF. George Russell (Mercedes)
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DNS. Pierre Gasly (Alpine)
Here’s our snap report.
Lewis Hamilton: “I can’t stop crying. Since 2021 I have been trying. It’s my last British win for this team. I wanted to win it for this team. I love them. The important thing is to dig deep. There have been days since 2021 that I didn’t think I was good enough. I love you guys, God bless you.”
Max Verstappen: “We didn’t have the pace today. It didn’t look great. I was thinking we would finsih fifth and sixth. It could have been a lot worse.”
Lando Norris speaks to Jenson Button: “That crucial decision at the end, Lewis did his better. I don’t think we did as good a job as we could have done. I blame myself for not making good enough decisions. I would love everything to go perfectly but it didn’t today.”
He has found what he was looking for
Hamilton is still crying. As well as he might. What with the England footballers and this, it’s all coming up England. It’s almost as if a dark cloud has lifted from the country. The Union Jack – not the Cross of St George – is waved by Britain’s greatest living driver who stage-dives into his team. Wonderful scenes.
“Get in there, Lewis,” says the race radio. Hamilton is in audible tears. “We never give up,” says Toto Wolff. That’s the 150th podium finish for Mercedes for Hamilton, whose popularity is perhaps even greater now he’s no longer a serial winner. “I felt it would come, the British GP, the last one,” says Toto. “I love you guys,” says Lewis.
Lewis Hamilton wins the British GP for the ninth time
52/52 Into the final corners and what a win for Hamilton, it’s been a long time coming and that will make it all the sweeter. In comes Verstappen, and then Norris. Wild scenes in the Mercedes garage, Toto Wolff close to tears! Rule Britannia.
51/52 Hamilton is sitting pretty. Sainz comes in to pit to try and set a fastest lap. Brian May – the reticent, poodle-permed Queen axeman – will be waving the chequered flag. Hamilton just wants to break free.
50/52 Hamilton blasts past back-markers, who let him through. Big cheers as he passes the stands. Ricciardo is asked to get out of the way, and does so. Verstappen gives chase as Hamilton enters open road again.
49/52 Right, then. Hamilton v Verstappen. Old school battle over four laps or so. Hamilton last won in Saudi Arabia in 2021. Verstappen is quicker but not quick enough, gaining only tenths of seconds when the gap is three seconds.
Verstappen overtakes Norris, takes second
48/52 Piastri sets a fastest lap. Did McLaren put the wrong tyres on the wrong car. Verstappen is all over the back of Norris, who has to concede.
47/52 Norris stays ahead of Verstappen by just over a second. Hamilton must take advantage. Verstappen is 17 km/h quicker than Norris, who uses his battery pack to charge up for the battle ahead.
46/52 Hamilton loses 3/10 of a second to Verstappen. Norris looks a sitting duck, his tyres coming apart at the scene. Verstappen is getting into DRS territory.
45/52 Verstappen is only 4.5 seconds behind. This could be a thriller for the Silverstone ages.
44/52 Verstappen is flying as he chases Norris. Hamilton may require his fellow Brit to hold up the chase for first.
43/52 Hamilton, Norris, Verstappen, Piastri, Sainz: that’s the order at the moment. DRS has been enabled, with overtakes to come. Exciting.
42/52 Can Hamilton hang on? There are eleven laps of tension to follow. Verstappen’s tyres are doing their job, and he’s making up time.
41/52 The slowness of that Norris pit was due to a traffic problem with Ferrari’s mechanics being around. He slid to a halt, and they missed changing a wing but too. Meanwhile, a menacing Verstappen in third, is setting fastest laps
Hamilton leads after Norris pits!
40/52 Norris pits and comes out to find Hamilton is ahead of him. Did McLaren make a mistake again with the pits? The race is on to the finish, and with 2.5 seconds on his countryman.
39/52 Kevin Magnussen and Daniel Ricciardo are testing out the slicks. Hamilton pits, and so does Verstappen. Norris blazes past but will have to come in. Piastri again has a slow pit. Norris, Sainz, Hamilton is the top three, with the top two to pit.
38/52 Verstappen is going to struggle to catch Hamilton and Norris ahead of them. Still, there may be pitting to come, with slick tyres the order of the day.
37/52 A view in the Norris cockpit and he’s told that Hamilton is closing on him. “The sun is coming out,” says Sir Lewis. It is now bright sunshine.
36/52 Kevin Magnussen, in 11th, almost comes to grief but just manages to stay on the course. It’s treacherous out there, and will be even when the rain ends in six minutes.
35/52 The word from Martin Brundle is some form of systems issue. Mercedes say that the Russell car was losing water pressure. He was going to overheat with a lack of water. The irony.
George Russell retires!
34/52 “Retire the car,” he’s told, having been in pole. Some rude words are bleeped out. More when we know it.
33/52 Piastri, having been nixed by that pit-stop situation, is 19 seconds off the lead and chasing Sainz. He’s had to sacrifice himself for the Norris chance of winning.
32/52 The debate over tyres continues. Hamilton tells his team there’s not much rain about. His tyres are falling apart, he says. He always likes a whinge about tyres.
31/52 More Verstappen struggles, a fairly mournful discussion with his team. The word is that the 40th lap is when the rain stops.
30/52 So, the race is on. Will there be further pits to follow? Catch Norris is the plan for Hamilton, chasing that ninth British GP. Verstappen – again – looks a little slower than his fellow competitors.
29/52 Piastri leads, and Norris is catching up. Hamilton is third, Verstappen fourth ahead of Russell. Piastri lumbers into the pits but that was a disaster, and he will drop to sixth. All now are on the intermediates.
Norris, Hamilton and Russell all pit
28/52 Piastri is out on his own, Norris is in for the pits. Hamilton and Russell go in together. They go on to the intermediates.
27/52 Verstappen and Sainz have pitted to change tyres. The top four will have do the same very soon.
26/52 Piastri tells his team it’s too early for intermediates. Sainz finds the track is wetter than before as his Ferrari struggles to get round a bend. Up front, Norris and Piastri draw closer to each other, and will do battle with each other.
25/52 Norris, Piastri, Hamilton, Russell, Verstappen, Sainz – those are the six with a chance in the race. Leclerc in the Ferrari is on the intermediates, and his tyres are not stopping him sliding all over the show.
24/52 DRS is re-enabled. Not that it’s stopped anyone overtaking on this classic old track. There’s a 30 minute batch of road rain coming, according to race radio.
23/52 Norris and Piastri have stolen in, taken advantage. The McLaren looks in full nick, flying along. More rain to follow, it seems.