How long Lewis Hamilton has waited for this moment — 945 days since his previous victory, in Saudi Arabia in 2021. That was the race before his career, and life, changed for ever, with a world title lost to Max Verstappen in Abu Dhabi.
That day, everything that could possibly go wrong, did go wrong, in such dramatic and heartbreaking fashion for a driver who feared, in his darkest moments, that his best days were behind him.
“Honestly when I came back in 2022, I thought that I was over it, and I know I wasn’t,” he admitted. “It’s taken a long time for sure to heal that kind of feeling. That’s only natural for anyone that has that experience.”
On Sunday, in a thrilling British Grand Prix, everything fell into place. His Mercedes team-mate, George Russell, who had taken pole position, retired with a water-cooling issue. McLaren and Lando Norris got the strategy calls wrong at the crucial moment and, in the most bizarre of all the outcomes, Red Bull were simply not quick enough.
Some of that pace deficiency was recovered by Verstappen’s cool head and a correct tyre choice. This time, with the Red Bull driver closing in as the laps ticked down, Hamilton hung on, nursing his soft tyres with the sheer desire of a man so desperate to achieve his 104th victory.
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As he thanked the team as he crossed the line, he could not hold back his tears. They continued to flow as he hugged his dad, a wordless moment of happiness that encapsulated the rollercoaster journey they have been on in recent months and years, and then his mum.
Formula 1 is not a sport where there is an opportunity to carry momentum from a previous year. The regulations changed in 2022, and Red Bull conquered as Mercedes waned.
For 56 race days, Hamilton has woken up and watched another man win. When you are a serial winner — a seven-times world champion — that is not a palatable scenario.
“I can’t stop crying,” Hamilton said. “It’s been since 2021, just every day, getting up, trying to fight, to train, to put my mind to the task, and work as hard as I can.
“You’ve got to continue to dig deep even when you feel you’re at the bottom of the barrel. There’s definitely been days between 2021 and here, where I didn’t feel like I was good enough or whether I was going to get back to where I am today.”
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Even after such significant and commendable improvements from those working hard at the Brackley factory, Hamilton knew he required rain. Silverstone delivered for him, as it so often has. This was his ninth victory at this circuit, the most of any driver at a single venue.
This was his final British Grand Prix in the colours of the silver arrows but another awaits in the Ferrari red of his childhood dreams next season. For weeks and even months of this year, this has felt like a drawn-out goodbye, slightly awkward, at times bettered by his team-mate, every question about Ferrari only adding to his ire. As he crossed the line in front of adoring fans, it was all worth it. “It’s like a fairytale here in Silverstone,” Toto Wolff, the Mercedes team principal, said.
Three British drivers had qualified in the top three positions for the first time at a home race since 1962 with Verstappen, fourth in his Red Bull, attempting to spoil the party.
His hopes of pole were ruined after he ran wide on the gravel at Copse in qualifying. His floor was replaced overnight, and he managed to leapfrog the first of the Britons, Norris, through the first sector.
Pierre Gasly was forced to retire his Alpine after a gearbox problem on the formation lap but the rest of the field emerged from the opening moments unscathed — despite Nico Hulkenberg’s run wide causing a domino effect, and damage for Alex Albon.
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Mercedes were expecting to be marginally slower than Norris and Verstappen in dry conditions but as the opening laps unfolded, Russell and Hamilton maintained their lead.
This was a race, in the British summer, always likely to be determined by rain. By lap 15, the umbrellas were erected and the ponchos worn as rain came down.
The McLarens came alive, with more downforce in the conditions, and Norris breezed down the inside of Verstappen at Stowe. That could not have been a more different sequence of events than the two drivers colliding in Austria the previous week, when Verstappen was considered predominantly at fault.
As the rain increased, Oscar Piastri in the second McLaren also passed Verstappen, while Hamilton took the lead from Russell. Hamilton had hoped this race would feature rain, with his experience and skill coming to the fore in these conditions as he dared to take the more adventurous lines.
Both Mercedes cars ran wide as grip vanished, allowing Norris to pass Russell before taking the race lead from Hamilton a lap later. A race can be won and lost on the decision to come in for intermediate tyres, and the out-of-position Sergio Pérez and Charles Leclerc gambled to come in early.
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Hamilton was offered the same choice but told his engineers it was too dry on track, and was proved right as the first shower passed. A couple of laps later and heavier rain reached the track, Verstappen telling his team to pit him.
That brought him back into the race for the lead but Norris and Hamilton (in a double stack with Russell) pitted a lap later. McLaren’s decision to leave Piastri out ruined his race, dropping him to sixth.
Russell was told to retire the car with a suspected water system issue, ending his hopes of becoming the first driver that isn’t Verstappen to win consecutive races since 2021. He was “gutted” but stayed behind in the media pen after his interviews watching on television until he was sure Hamilton had secured victory.
The switch back on to the dry tyres led to another McLaren error, with Norris having a slow, 4.5-second stop having pitted a lap later. That mistake gave the lead back to Hamilton.
“We threw it away in the final stop,” Norris said. “I don’t think it was [just] a lap…even if I boxed on the perfect lap, our decision to go onto the softs was the wrong one. Lewis would have won no matter what. Two calls from our side cost us everything today.”
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“When you throw away a win, it is pretty disappointing. I am just not to the level I need to be at, not to the level of the others at the minute. It is something I need to work on.”
Andrea Stella, the McLaren team principal, admitted their decision-making in pressured scenarios was “under construction” compared to that of Mercedes and Red Bull.
After being informed Norris was behind him on the same tyre, Hamilton responded “leave me to it, mate”, to Peter “Bono” Bonnington. His race engineer knew his driver was on course for victory.
But this was a three-way fight. Verstappen was on the hard tyre that had more longevity, while the Britons in front of him were on the soft.
Norris was the blocker between Verstappen and Hamilton and, with four laps to go, Verstappen drove around the outside on the Hangar Straight, setting up a shoot-out between him and Hamilton.
“At the start I couldn’t keep up,” Verstappen said. “At one point I was looking at P5 and thinking it was going to be a long afternoon. We really maximised this result, I am happy to finish second.”
But this was Hamilton’s day, taking the chequered flag on the Hamilton Straight.
