945 days. 56 Grand Prix races. For a man who had won in every season of Formula 1 till then to have to wait for so long for another win seems beyond belief. But Sir Lewis Hamilton – the most successful driver in the history of his sport – had to wait that long. Through spells of agony, self-doubt and crushed glimmers of hope. But when it came, it came in the best way possible. Lewis Hamilton claimed his 104th F1 win at his home British Grand Prix on Sunday.

The win was, by all means, a fairytale. On a track no one drives quite like he does. In front of a colosseum of fans adorned in his masks and race number ’44’. He had won in Silverstone a record eight times before – including perhaps one of Formula 1’s greatest-ever drives in 2008 – but his ninth win, in 2024, is perhaps the most special.

“I can’t stop crying,” said Hamilton in the post-race interview. “Since 2021, every day getting up, trying to fight, to train, to put my mind to the task and work as hard as I can,” Hamilton tried to reason.

He didn’t need to. After having a championship taken away from him in heartbreaking circumstances at the end of 2021, Hamilton never got a chance to fight back as Mercedes fell down the pecking order.

Too many times, he had had his ability questioned. Sunday allowed Lewis Hamilton to release years of pent-up emotion: from needing a result for the effort he put, to being able to prove, to himself, that he has still got it. Oh boy, has he still got it.

On Sunday, Hamilton rode the ebbs and flows better than anyone else. He overtook teammate and pole-sitter George Russell on track. He then closed the gap to Lando Norris in a faster McLaren through a tricky spell of rain. Blitzed his outlap to overtake Norris after the final pitstops. And when Norris faded, Hamilton stayed strong, taking care of his soft tyres till the end to hold off a fast-charging Max Verstappen.

It wasn’t a win through luck, or in the fastest car; accusations that’ve unfairly been thrown Hamilton’s way in the past. Instead, it was a display of sheer genius. Hamilton was the best driver on Sunday. Period.

Hamilton himself admitted that he rarely cries. But as he teared up inside his car and then went on to have a long embrace with his father, it brought back memories of Turkey 2020.

Turkey 2020 was the race when Hamilton equalled the record for the most championships in Formula 1 history. The fact that this win caused Hamilton to react in a similar manner to that record-breaking race tells you everything about the magnitude, and what it meant to him.

To top it all off, the win came in Silverstone, his home race. The circuit where a part of the track is named after him. It’s the place where the crowd roars loudest for Formula 1’s most popular driver. As an emotional Hamilton jumped over the barriers and waved the Union Jack high, it was hard to not let a tear escape.

“To make him win again, at the British Grand Prix, in his last race for Mercedes here, it’s almost like a little fairytale. You couldn’t have scripted it better,” quipped Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff at the end of the race.

Despite turning 40 next year, Hamilton may still have many more romantic chapters to write as he prepares to don the Ferrari red next season. But he’ll have to do quite something to beat Sunday’s storyline.

George Russell is the form man in Formula 1 at the moment, as he grabbed a second pole position in four races to head an all-British top 3 in the British Grand Prix qualifying on Saturday. Russell finished 0.171s ahead of Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton, who qualified P2. McLaren’s Lando Norris slotted in third, despite being the favourite going into qualifying. His teammate Oscar Piastri qualified P5. It was a disappointing day for Max Verstappen by his standards, as he qualified only fourth. But how did Mercedes come out on top?

Wet weather the secret to Mercedes success

Not for the first time in 2024, the Mercedes came alive in cooler conditions. Much like the Canadian GP when Russell grabbed pole, a wet-to-dry qualifying session suited the Mercedes car during qualifying, making them the team to beat on the soft tyre runs.

Championship leader Max Verstappen went off into the gravel in Q1, and a possible loss of downforce from that incident meant that the Dutchman was never really in contention for pole.

With rain on the cards on Sunday, George Russell will be eyeing up a second successive win, after his Austrian GP success last weekend.

Watch out for Hamilton, Norris

Lewis Hamilton is an eight-time winner at Silverstone, and no driver drives the circuit quite like the seven-time world champion. Starting on the front row, Hamilton, for once in 2024, will not have to rue a poor qualifying result.

Lando Norris in the McLaren is likely to also take the fight to the two Silver Arrows. In recent weekends, the McLaren has been the fastest car on raceday.

Day to forget for Ferrari

Ferrari have abruptly fallen behind Red Bull, McLaren and Mercedes, proved by the fact that Nico Hulkenberg in the Haas outqualified Carlos Sainz. The day was even worse for Charles Leclerc, who failed to make it to Q3.

Lance Stroll (P8) also outqualified Fernando Alonso (P10) in the Aston Martin team.

Earlier in the day, Sergio Perez beached it in the gravel in Q1, meaning it was yet another Q1 elimination for the Mexican.

British GP Qualifying Top 10: 1. George Russell, 2. Lewis Hamilton, 3. Lando Norris, 4. Max Verstappen, 5. Oscar Piastri, 6. Nico Hulkenberg, 7. Carlos Sainz, 8. Lance Stroll, 9. Alex Albon, 10. Fernando Alonso.

Lando Norris seeks to be a party-wrecker this weekend when he takes on series leader and three-time Formula One world champion Max Verstappen at his Red Bull team’s home Austrian Grand Prix. After a series of impressive results including two consecutive second place finishes behind the Dutchman, the McLaren driver wants to trim his 69-point deficit in the title race. The 24-year-old Englishman believes he has the car and the confidence to put together a winning sequence himself. 

“We’re on a roll and we’re doing well,” said Norris, adding he was frustrated by his own errors.

“I need to tidy up a few little bits and pieces and we’ll be on top. I am confident. 

“Every weekend we go into now, the car is performing extremely well and we’re always there, or thereabouts, within a couple of tenths.”

He blamed himself for not winning from pole in last Sunday’s Spanish Grand Prix after beating Verstappen in qualifying. 

Since winning the Miami Grand Prix in May, Norris has moved up a gear to become his friend’s main rival for the title.

He has finished within four seconds or less of Verstappen at Imola, Montreal and Barcelona as he extended his run to 10 seconds in the last 23 races. 

However, he and McLaren know Verstappen will be strong and motivated by massed ranks of his ‘orange army’ on a track where he dominated last year as he stamped his supremacy on the season.

‘Big strides’

This year has been different, however, and a close scrap is in prospect in the 11th round of the championship where a third sprint race this year may also spring a surprise. 

Red Bull’s team boss Christian Horner warned his team are no longer having it their own way and said he expects a difficult weekend. 

“On such a short lap, it’s going to be tight and we expect McLaren, and Lando, to be fast again along with Ferrari and Mercedes.

“Who knows? 

“The one who’s really stepped up is Lando and we’re having to fight really hard for wins at the moment and be on top of our game as a team. But, you know, that’s F1 as it should be!”

After their recent resurgence, Mercedes will hope to stay in contention with seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton buoyed by his first podium this year and team-mate George Russell feeling the Silver Arrows have rediscovered their form and mojo. 

“We’re all feeling excited for the remainder of the season,” said Russell.

“We’ve got more wind tunnel time than all of our rivals and we know what we need to do to make these big strides now.

“We don’t want to get ahead of ourselves, but I’m 100 per cent confident we’ll win races this year now.”

Whatever the outcome this weekend, as he seeks a fifth win, Verstappen will extend his record for leading the championship to 50 races.

It is a welcome certainty in the light of last year’s chaos when the result was revised five hours after the event following a spate of penalties for drivers’ exceeding track limits. 

That is unlikely this year as the Red Bull-owned circuit has installed 2.5-metre gravel traps at the exits of Turns Nine and Ten. 

Last year, a total of more than 1,200 possible infringements were investigated resulting in 83 being identified and eight drivers penalised.

McLaren driver Lando Norris fought right to the end, but it was Max Verstappen who won his seventh race of the season at the 2024 Spanish Grand Prix. The gap between the two drivers were separated by only 2.2 seconds at the chequered flag, after a valiant push from the British driver, to close the gap from more than eight seconds at one point. Mercedes finished third and fourth for the second consecutive race, but this time, Lewis Hamilton grabbed his first Grand Prix podium of 2024.

At the start of the race, George Russell went from fourth to first in the first turn, with an audacious move. Crucially, Verstappen also pipped pole-sitter Norris at the start. The Dutchman would soon overtake Russell on Lap 3, a move that would allow him to manage his pace and tyres at the front.

Ferrari duo Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz finished where they started, coming home in fifth and sixth. Leclerc was less than a second behind Russell at the end.

Home hero Fernando Alonso endured a race to forget, finishing pointless at a disappointing 12th place. 

Russell was ahead of Norris and Hamilton for most of the race. However, Mercedes’ decision to put hard tyres on his final stint proved to be the wrong choice, as he slipped down the podium places.

Sainz also spent most of the race ahead of Leclerc, having overtaken him in Lap 2. However, he also fell victim to the hard tyres.

Oscar Piastri recovered from his worst qualifying of 2024 to finish seventh, while Sergio Perez got eighth. 

And it was a bright day for French constructors Alpine, as both Pierre Gasly (P9) and Esteban Ocon (P10) finished in the points. 

Verstappen continues to lead the championship standings, now going 70 points in front of everyone. Norris, however, has leapfrogged Leclerc to second.

The F1 circus next heads to Austria, for the Austrian GP, on June 30.

McLaren’s Lando Norris (centre) took pole position for the Spanish GP.© AFP

Three-time world champion and series leader Max Verstappen returned to winning ways on Sunday when he resisted a late charge by Lando Norris to take a dramatic victory for Red Bull at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix. After being beaten in Miami, where friend and rival Norris claimed his maiden victory for McLaren, the Dutchman resisted him to come home 0.725 seconds ahead of the Briton who mounted a rousing final attack in vain. Charles Leclerc finished third for Ferrari ahead of Oscar Piastri in the second McLaren, Carlos Sainz in the second Ferrari and seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton and his Mercedes team-mate George Russell. 

Sergio Perez was eighth in the second Red Bull ahead of Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll and RB’s Yuki Tsunoda, in his Faenza-based team’s home event. 

Verstappen’s hard-earned win, after a difficult two days of practice, was his third at Imola, his fifth of the season and the 59th of his career, lifting him 48 points clear of Leclerc in the drivers’ title race. 

“We did a great race considering how it started and I had to work hard for that,” admitted Verstappen. “The whole race I pushed flat out to make a gap. 

“I felt quite strong on mediums, but on the hards, it was more difficult to manage and the last 15 laps I had no grip and I was sliding a lot. 

“I could see him behind me and I am super-happy to win here today.”

Norris said: “It’s frustrating! This feels more painful. It hurts me to say so, but with one or two more laps I think I’d have had him.”

Leclerc, whose podium finish for Ferrari in their heartland was acclaimed by masses of tifosi, said: “At least a podium! Of course, I wanted to win and I didn’t make it.

“They were incredibly quick at the end, but it’s looking good for us for the rest of the season. Monaco is going to be special.”

‘I’m pushing’

On a very warm Spring day all but Perez began on medium tyres, the Mexican choosing ‘hards’ to go long after a desultory qualifying left him 11th on the grid. 

Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso started from the pitlane after late suspension changes while Piastri was fifth, penalised from second for obstructing Kevin Magnussen on Saturday. 

As the lights went out, Verstappen surged clear while behind him Hamilton and Perez made up places during an incident-free opening as the world champion built an early advantage. 

Verstappen’s relentless pace took him five seconds clear by lap 16 ahead of Norris who led Leclerc by 1.3 with Sainz fourth, resisting Piastri. The Mercedes’ pair were sixth and seventh ahead of Perez.

Russell was the first of the leading group to pit after 21 laps, having complained his tyres were shot.

Norris was next in on lap 23, coming out behind Perez, followed by Piastri and then Verstappen, on lap 25, shortly after the Dutchman was shown a black-and-white flag for exceeding track limits. One more offence would bring a five second penalty. 

Verstappen re-joined fourth behind Leclerc, Sainz and Hamilton with Norris behind him, having passed Perez, before Leclerc pitted and Sainz inherited the lead briefly before pitting with Hamilton, who had run off at Acque Minerali. 

This left Verstappen back on top at half-distance with a lead of 6.2 seconds on Norris, Leclerc and Piastri.

Having eased off to preserve his tyres, Norris mounted a late charge and trimmed Verstappen’s lead on successive laps to put him under intense pressure.

With seven laps to go, he was only two seconds adrift and closing in. 

“I’m pushing as hard as I can mate,” said Norris on team radio when encouraged to hunt a second victory.

Hard as he tried to turn the screw Verstappen scraped home on the day Formula One remembered the late great Ayrton Senna, who died in a crash at the circuit three decades ago.