SILVERSTONE, England, 7 Jul: Lewis Hamilton held off Max Verstappen\u2019s late charge to win a thrilling British Grand Prix on Sunday and secure his first victory since the penultimate race of the 2021 season.
\nHamilton became the first F1 driver to win on any track nine times and also extended his F1 record to 104 wins. His last came at the Saudi Arabian GP in December 2021 \u2014 the year he lost the title to Red Bull driver Verstappen.
\n\u201cYou\u2019ve got to continue to dig deep even when you are feeling the bottom of the barrel,\u201d Hamilton said. \u201cMy fans around the world have been so supportive.\u201d
\nIt was a fitting way for Hamilton to end his last British GP with Mercedes, before joining Ferrari next year.
\n\u201cThis is my last race here with this team so I wanted to win this so much for them because I love them and I appreciate them so much,\u201d he said. \u201cI was coming round and there\u2019s just no greater feeling than to finish at the front here.\u201d
\nThe seven-time F1 champion beat defending champion Verstappen by 1.5 seconds, with Lando Norris finishing third for McLaren ahead of teammate Oscar Piastri.
\nA tearful-sounding Hamilton thanked his team over radio and was still emotional several minutes later as he struggled to compose himself.
\n\u201cI\u2019m still crying,\u201d Hamilton said as he addressed the crowd. \u201cThere\u2019s definitely been days between 2021 and here when I didn\u2019t feel I was good enough.\u201d
\nThere were high hopes for a home win at Silverstone, with Hamilton\u2019s Mercedes teammate George Russell on pole position ahead of Hamilton and with Norris going from third and Verstappen fourth.
\nRussell\u2019s hopes of a second straight F1 win ended on Lap 34 of 52 with a suspected water system issue on his car. A few laps later, McLaren botched Norris\u2019 tire change.
\nVerstappen overtook Norris with four laps left but could not catch Hamilton, to the delight of most of the 164,000 fans attending the race.
\nMoments after crossing the line, Hamilton jumped into the arms of mechanics and then shared a long hug with his father. Then it was time to absorb the applause from the home fans. Carrying a British flag he jumped over a crash barrier and then held it aloft.
\n\u201cI can see you lap by lap, there\u2019s just no greater feeling,\u201d he told the cheering crowd. The start saw Russell and Hamilton get away cleanly while Verstappen overtook Norris.
\nRain started falling some 25 minutes into the race and made the 5.9-kilometer (3.7-mile) track more greasy.
\nAfter Hamilton took the lead from Russell on the damp track, Norris took advantage of a Russell error to move into second.
\nVerstappen, Norris and both Mercedes cars pitted for new tires shortly after the halfway point of the race. But McLaren kept Piastri out a little longer, which ultimately cost him a chance of victory.
\nAfter the tire-change shakeup, Norris was just over three seconds ahead of Hamilton while Verstappen was drifting back at this point.
\nThe next tire changes, with a little more than 10 laps remaining, proved crucial.
\nVerstappen, Hamilton and Norris made quick changes but McLaren took too long on Norris\u2019 rears – 4.5 seconds – and he came out 2.4 seconds behind race leader Hamilton, with Verstappen now making up ground fast.
\nHe couldn\u2019t get close enough, though, and Hamilton\u2019s win made it six different winners so far this season \u2014 compared to just three in 22 races last year.
\nAlthough Verstappen is not winning as much, he is still extending his gap because Norris is finishing behind him.
\nHe is 84 points ahead of Norris in the standings, 255-171, with Charles Leclerc in third place with 150. Despite collecting 25 points for his win, Hamilton is eighth overall with 110.
\nCarlos Sainz Jr. finished Sunday\u2019s race in fifth for Ferrari ahead of Haas driver Nico Hulkenberg, with Lance Stroll (Aston Martin), Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin), Alex Albon (Williams) and Yuki Tsunoda (RB) rounding out the top 10.
\nSergio Perez apologized to Red Bull after qualifying in a dismal 19th, and started from the pit lane as his team made multiple part changes. He finished 17th, while Leclerc started 11th and placed 14th. AP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
SILVERSTONE, England, 7 Jul: Lewis Hamilton held off Max Verstappen\u2019s late charge to win a thrilling British Grand Prix on Sunday and secure his first victory since the penultimate race of the 2021 season. Hamilton became the first F1 driver to win on any track nine times and also extended his F1 record to 104 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-243883","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243883","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=243883"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243883\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=243883"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=243883"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=243883"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}