Lewis Hamilton held off Max Verstappen’s late cost to win an exciting British Grand Prix and safe his first victory because the penultimate race of the 2021 season.
Hamilton grew to become the primary F1 driver to win on any monitor 9 instances and in addition prolonged his F1 file to 104 wins. His final got here on the Saudi Arabian GP in December 2021 — the 12 months he misplaced the title to Crimson Bull driver Verstappen.
“You’ve acquired to proceed to dig deep even when you’re feeling the underside of the barrel,” Hamilton stated. “My followers around the globe have been so supportive.”
npr.org stories that it was a becoming method for Hamilton to finish his final British GP with Mercedes, earlier than becoming a member of Ferrari subsequent 12 months.
“That is my final race right here with this workforce so I needed to win this a lot for them as a result of I like them and I respect them a lot,” he stated. “I used to be coming spherical and there’s simply no better feeling than to complete on the entrance right here.”
The seven-time F1 champion beat defending champion Verstappen by 1.5 seconds, with Lando Norris ending third for McLaren forward of teammate Oscar Piastri.
A tearful-sounding Hamilton thanked his workforce over radio and was nonetheless emotional a number of minutes later as he struggled to compose himself.
“I’m nonetheless crying,” Hamilton stated as he addressed the gang. “There’s undoubtedly been days between 2021 and right here once I didn’t really feel I used to be ok.”
There have been excessive hopes for a house win at Silverstone, with Hamilton’s Mercedes teammate George Russell on pole place forward of Hamilton and with Norris going from third and Verstappen fourth.
Russell’s hopes of a second straight F1 win ended on Lap 34 of 52 with a suspected water system situation on his automotive. Just a few laps later, McLaren botched Norris’ tire change.
