Lewis Hamilton outshone his rivals on Sunday to win the British Grand Prix with Mercedes in a big win that was not only the British driver’s home victory but also Hamilton’s first win since 2021.
The win was Hamilton’s ninth victory at the Silverstone Race Track in Britain, breaking the F1 record for the most wins at a single circuit. F1 heavyweight driver Max Verstappen came in second and Lando Norris came in third.
Sunday’s win was Hamilton’s 104th F1 victory, making him the driver with the most wins of all time.
Hamilton appeared emotional after the race, which came 945 days after his last victory at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix in 2021. The 39-year-old racer embraced his father Anthony and wiped away tears beneath his visor.
Hamilton won four consecutive F1 championships from 2017 to 2020, and finished second in 2021, but struggled to finish in the top three in some races. After recording 17 podiums in previous seasons, he has recorded nine podiums in 2022 and six in 2023.
Hamilton’s second-place finish in 2021 was marked by controversy, as Verstappen won after race director Michael Masi instructed the cars to unlap before the final sprint to the finish, allowing Verstappen to pass Hamilton on fresher tyres before the chequered flag.
Hamilton has been winless since then as Mercedes struggled to get to grips with F1’s new car rules introduced that season. Verstappen has dominated the series for the past three seasons, and Hamilton’s win on Sunday was just Mercedes’ third since the start of 2022.
But there are signs of a real upswing. Hamilton’s win comes a week after teammate George Russell won in Austria after Norris and Verstappen collided, and both Russell and Hamilton started Sunday’s race on the front row. Russell himself was on pace for a top-five finish before being forced to retire mid-race with a suspected water-pump problem.
Hamilton remains eighth in the F1 standings with 110 points, having finished third at June’s Spanish Grand Prix, and is now just one point behind Russell and 14 points behind fifth-placed Oscar Piastri.
Verstappen has dominated F1 since 2021 and leads the standings by a large margin with 255 points, seven wins and nine podiums.
F1’s next race is the Hungarian Grand Prix on July 21st, a race where Hamilton has performed well in the past, finishing fourth last year and second the two years prior to that.
