FORMULA 1
 © Reuters A very emotional Lewis Hamilton wins the 2024 British Grand Prix, bringing his total to a record breaking 9 British Grand Prix wins! In a race filled with drama, rain, tyre strategies, too early pit stops for intermediate tyres, slow pit stops and a race all the way to the last lap. Carlos Sainz pits on lap 51 for soft tyres to take fastest lap of the race. After 945 days, Lewis Hamilton takes his 104th career victory and became the 6th driver to win this season so far! Race Facts
 © Getty Images / Red Bull Content Pool George Russell started on pole for the third time in his career but for the first time at the British Grand Prix. He managed to hold off Hamilton who slots in behind Russell, protecting and covering Russell from Norris and Verstappen behind. Norris struggled to get his medium tyres up to temperature and lost a place to Verstappen, who moved into P3 on the first lap. Leclerc managed to gain three places on the race start, moving his Ferrari into P8 on the first lap. Alonso and Albon touch on Turn 3 after Hulkenberg runs wide and forces Alonso wide, concertinaing into Albon, who moved into P12 in front of his teammate. Gasly was forced to retire his Alpine after the formation lap due to a suspected gearbox issue before the start of the race. By lap 10, Russell is still 1.532s ahead of Hamilton, with Verstappen 2.454s behind him, Norris 1.334s behind Verstappen and Piastri in fifth place 0.814s behind Norris. Rain threatened the race from the start with a 60% chance of rain, but by lap 11, team radios suggested rain was arriving soon. By lap 12, Perez, who started in the pit lane after Red Bull changed his Power Unit as he qualified in P19, was up into P16 after overtaking Ocon, Bottas and Zhou.  Zhou was the first to pit from his soft tyres on medium tyres on lap 13. Charles Leclerc moved into seventh place after overtaking Stroll on lap 14 and ended up 4.440s behind his teammate. Norris seemed to have figured out his tyres and started chasing Verstappen for third place, getting within the DRS range on lap 14. It isn't a repeat of Austria, as Norris gets past Verstappen on lap 16 just as Silverstone comes alive and onto its feet, with a British 1-2-3 once again. On lap 15, the rain had arrived, and by lap 17, it was coming down heavily, but the track remained mostly dry. Norris started to eat time from Hamilton, closing the gap slowly. Piastri also overtook Verstappen on lap 18, and the crowd erupted again. With Norris gaining on Hamilton, Hamilton was within 0.5s of Russell for P1 on lap 18. Hamilton took the lead of the British Grand Prix on lap 18. Both Hamilton and Russell left the track but rejoined the track with Norris right behind Russell, taking the second place from the pole sitter. DRS was disabled from lap 19 onwards as the track became slippy. It was really wet in Maggotts and Becketts. Norris and Piastri have more grip than both Mercedes, with Norris taking the lead from Hamilton, and Piastri overtaking Russell on lap 20. On lap 20, Leclerc, Ocon, Zhou, and Perez pitted for intermediate tyres, while Piastri overtook Hamilton and moved into P2. Meanwhile, further behind, Sainz closed in on Verstappen. At the same time, his teammate on slicks was struggling in P16. Perez and Leclerc were struggling on their intermediate tyres, with Ocon changing back onto medium tyres after a mistake.  © Getty Images / Red Bull Content Pool On lap 24, the rain had subsided enough for DRS to be enabled once again, with Norris leading over Piastri (+1.621s), Hamilton (+1.343s), Russell (+2.301) and Verstappen (+5.207). The rain once again hit lightly on lap 25. Meanwhile, Leclerc, Perez, and Ocon were all lapped, with Leclerc and Perez on intermediate tyres, both losing 20s per lap on intermediates. Sainz was once again all over Verstappen's back when he found a rainline slowing him down significantly. 12.5s covered the top seven drivers. Verstappen and Sainz pitted on lap 27 for intermediate tyres, rejoining in 5th and 6th positions. Hulkenberg, Stroll, and Riccardo all stopped for intermediate tyres, but the top four stayed out on track just as it got wetter. Norris, Hamilton, and Russell pitted for intermediate tyres while Piastri stayed out. Mercedes had a great double stack. All were on intermediate tyres, with Norris rejoining in second place, Hamilton in third, Verstappen fourth, Russell in fifth, and Sainz in sixth. Piastri stayed out on track but pitted on lap 28 for intermediate tyres a lap after Norris to avoid a McLaren double stack, but rejoined in sixth place, with Norris leading the race once again. All drivers were out on track with intermediate tyres, with Perez and Leclerc on their second set of intermediate tyres after just ten laps - a mistake from both teams pitting early. Verstappen also complained about degrading on his intermediate tyres on lap 31. As the rain began to subside on lap 32, all the drivers complained about the intermediate tyres going off, with the track drying quickly in some spots. On lap 34, Mercedes pit Russell, who is told to retire the car due to a suspected water system issue. This pushes Sainz into fourth place, Piastri into fifth, and Hulkenberg into sixth, followed by Stroll, Alonso, Tsunoda, Albon, Magnussen, Sargeant, Riccardo, Bottas, Leclerc, Perez, Ocon, and Zhou, rounding off the standings.  © Getty Images / Red Bull Content Pool On lap 36, Hamilton was leading a charge on Norris for first place as the rain stopped and the track started to dry. The teams started to question which tyres to use when they pitted to change from intermediate tyres. With 15 laps left in the race, Norris led, with Hamilton, Verstappen, Sainz, and Piastri in the top five. On lap 39, Verstappen (hards), Hamilton (softs), Piastri (medium), Magnussen, Riccardo, Leclerc and the majority of the other drivers pitting for a variety of tyres. But Norris, Sainz, Stroll, and Ocon wait for an extra lap. Hamilton once again takes the lead of the British Grand Prix on lap 40 with Norris 2.631s after a very slow pit stop where he goes long into the box. Norris and Mclaren choose to change onto the soft tyre even though they had a new set of medium tyres. Verstappen was in third place on hard tyres, followed by Piastri in fourth, Sainz in fifth on hard tyres, Hulkenberg in sixth on softs, Stroll and Alonso both on mediums and Tsunoda in ninth on softs, with Albon rounding off the top ten on mediums. On lap 44, Verstappen took the fastest lap on his hard tyres in third place. Hamilton was just 0.2s slower than Verstappen on lap 43. On lap 44, Hamilton on soft tyres was 2.136s ahead of Norris, with Norris also on softs 2.227s ahead of Verstappen and Piastri 10.853 seconds behind Verstappen.  © Mclaren Media It was a race to the finish line between Lewis Hamilton, Lando Norris and Max Verstappen with seven laps to go. Further back Albon overtook Tsunoda and went up into ninth place with his teammate in 11th place, with Tsunoda splitting the Williams drivers. Leclerc and Perez were caught out by an early pit stop and change to intermediate tyres and were running in 15th and 16th place with five laps to go. With five laps to go, Verstappen was all over the back of Norris, with Piastri taking the fastest lap on his medium tyres, should Norris have taken the medium tyres? Norris and Verstappen battle again and Verstappen gets ahead into P2 on lap 49. Verstappen took the fastest lap once again and was just 3.3s from Hamilton on with four laps to go. A battle between Hamilton and Verstappen to the finish line with three laps to go. With two laps to go Hamilton led Verstappen by 2.8s. Saniz pits on lap 51 for soft tyres, to try and take the fastest lap from Verstappen, Saniz was half a minute in front of Hulkenberg for 6th place. Verstappen still 2.358s from Hamilton with one lap to go. Verstappen can't close the gap and Lewis Hamilton wins the 2024 British Grand Prix for the 9th time!!  © Reuters Race Results1) Lewis Hamilton 1:22.27.059 2) Max Verstappen +1.465 3) Lando Norris +7.547 4) Oscar Piastri +12.429 5) Carlos Sainz +47.318 6) Nico Hulkenberg +55.722 7) Lance Stroll +56.569 8) Fernando Alonso +63.577 9) Alex Albon +68.387 10) Yuki Tsunoda +79.303 11) Logan Sargeant +88.960 12) Kevin Magnussen +90.153 13) Daniel Riccardo +1 Lap 14) Charles Leclerc +1 Lap 15) Valtteri Bottas +1 Lap 16) Esteban Ocon +2 Laps 17) Sergio Perez 18) Zhou Guanyu DNF George Russell DNF Pierre Gasly Lewis Hamilton on his ninth victory at the British Grand Prix, he said: “I can’t stop crying, it’s been since 2021 just everyday getting up to fight, to train and put my mind to the task and work as hard as I can with this amazing team. “This 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 and all the hard work they’ve been putting in over the years, I’m forever grateful to everyone at this team at Mercedes and all our partners. “And to all our incredible fans, I could see you lap by lap as I was coming round and there’s just no greater feeling than to finish at the front here.” On it being two and a half years since his last win, he added: “It’s tough for anyone but the important thing is how you continue to get up and you’ve got to continue to dig deep even when you feeling 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 if I was going to get back to where I am today but the important thing is I have great people around me continuing to support me and my team. Every time I turn up and see them and put in the effort that really encouraged me to do the same thing. “My fans when I see them around the world they have been so supportive so a big thank you to everyone back at the factory and everyone here I love you guys.”   Anny Wooldridge
Writer at the F1 Journal
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