Hamilton holds off Verstappen to win record ninth British Grand Prix

Lewis Hamilton produced a brilliant drive to clinch a record ninth British Grand Prix victory from a charging Max Verstappen. The Mercedes driver, 39, held off the reigning world champion at Silverstone in a thrilling race to take his first Grand Prix win since 2021. The seven-time world champion beat Red Bull's Verstappen by 1.5 seconds, with McLaren's Lando Norris in third. After the race, an emotional Hamilton, who will move to Ferrari next season, was in tears as he waved the Union Jack flag to cheers from the delighted British fans. The Briton became the first driver to secure nine victories at any circuit and stretched his record to 104 Grand Prix wins. Hamilton's last victory was 945 days ago at the Saudi Arabian GP in December 2021 – the year he lost the title to Verstappen in Abu Dhabi. "Since 2021, every day fighting, training and putting my mind to the task, working as hard as I can," said Hamilton. "This is my last race for the team here, I love them so much, I'll be forever grateful to everyone at Mercedes and to the incredible fans." Hamilton's teammate George Russell, the winner a week earlier in Austria, was forced out with a water leak after starting from pole position. Verstappen increased his lead over Norris at the top of the drivers' standings to 84 points despite failing to win for two consecutive races for the first time since Silverstone and Austria in 2022. Oscar Piastri of McLaren was fourth with Carlos Sainz of Ferrari sixth and Nico Hulkenberg of Haas seventh. As Hamilton took the chequered flag Mercedes' team engineer Peter Bonnington shouted on the radio: “Get in there, Lewis. You are the man, you are the man! I have been waiting for this.” Hamilton’s voice cracked as he replied: “Thank you so much, guys. It means a lot to get this one. I love you guys.” Crying in his cockpit, Hamilton said: “I love you, Bono.” Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff said over the radio: “We will prevail. We never give up and what a sign-off for our last race at the British Grand Prix. We couldn’t wish for anything better.” After stepping out of his cockpit, an emotional Hamilton hugged his father Anthony. “I am still crying,” said Hamilton. “There is no greater feeling than to finish at the front here. It is so tough for anyone. “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.” For a large part of the race, Norris looked to have done enough to win. He slipped behind Verstappen to fourth on the opening lap as Russell blasted away from Hamilton. But the McLaren driver’s race came alive when spots of rain began to fall on lap 15. Norris was crawling all over the back of Verstappen’s Red Bull machine before blasting ahead of his rival on the Hangar Straight and into Stowe. The crowd stood in salute of Norris as the British one-two-three was restored. Hamilton was now within range of Russell and he took the lead with a fine move on the inside of his teammate at Stowe. But the rain took its toll on the circuit with both Hamilton and Russell running off the track at the beginning of lap 19 with Norris moving ahead of Russell at Copse and then Hamilton heading into Abbey at the start of lap 20. Norris’s McLaren teammate Piastri was also on the move, taking Russell at the outside of the Loop and heading into the Wellington Straight before passing clear of Hamilton at Stowe. Suddenly it was a McLaren one-two with Hamilton and Russell relegated to third and fourth. With the rain worsening, Verstappen rolled the dice to move to the intermediate tyres. Remarkably, he was five seconds faster than his rivals in the second sector with Norris, Hamilton and Russell immediately switching to the wet rubber. As McLaren serviced Norris, Piastri was left out on dry tyres and his afternoon as a contender was over. On lap 33, Russell was told to retire the car from third place following a water leak failure with Norris seemingly on his way to victory. But with the track drying out, Mercedes pulled Hamilton into the pits for a set of softs and Verstappen, now back up to third, following his one-time rival in for dry rubber, too. Norris was left out on old intermediate tyres and when he stopped at the end of lap 40 his lead had been wiped out with Hamilton swooping into first place. Further back, and Verstappen was suddenly on the move with the Dutch driver taking Norris for second place with four laps remaining, but he had no answer for Hamilton, who held on to cross the line for an emotional win.

Hamilton holds off Verstappen to win record ninth British Grand Prix

Mercedes driver in tears as he clinches thrilling victory in front of ecstatic home fans at Silverstone