Hamilton, the king of chaos at Silverstone F1; Verstappen beats Norris
The 2024 Formula 1 British Grand Prix was a thrilling race, with rain adding a much-needed spice to an already somewhat confusing track. After several lead changes and plenty of strategic variety, Lewis Hamilton managed to take victory at Silverstone in front of his home crowd, ahead of Max Verstappen and Lando Norris, who both finished on the podium.
The opening laps of the race were fairly uneventful, with Russell maintaining his lead ahead of Hamilton and Verstappen passing Norris to take the podium. However, a few laps later the first drops of rain appeared and the McLarens sprang out to overtake Verstappen and the Mercedes, with Norris the new leader and Piastri second.
Mercedes remained ahead of Verstappen, who was fifth. Leclerc and Perez made a mistake by choosing an intermediate team. on a delicate track, but still suitable for dry tires.
Later, when the heaviest rain has comeall stopped in the pits for the interim races and there were several changes of position. Norris retained the lead, but Piastri dropped to sixth, behind Hamilton, Verstappen, Russell and Sainz. Out of the points, Alonso lost a lot of time as he pitted a lap after Hulkenberg and Stroll and started in a new position 10 seconds behind them.
The surprise came on lap 34 when the Pole Russell had to leave due to a breakdown in his Mercedes while he was battling with Verstappen for the final podium spot.
In the last laps of the race the rain stopped and the sun came outso all the drivers had to go back to the pits to install dry tyres and Hamilton overtakes Norris to take leadboth on soft tyres, with Verstappen third but with the advantage the hard tyres gave him as he didn’t have to manage them.
Lewis Hamilton was ultimately able to retain first place and, two and a half years later, took the victory, ahead of Max Verstappen overtakes Lando Norris with five laps to go. The McLaren driver finally finished on the podium in a very chaotic race with changing conditions.
Oscar Piastri, hampered by his first pit stop, finished fourth ahead of Carlos Sainz, who was fifth and got an extra point for fastest lap. Nico Hulkenberg surprised everyone with sixth place after holding off the Aston Martins, Lance Stroll seventh and Fernando Alonso eighth, who was also hampered by the fact that he made his first pit stop a lap after his two rivals.
Alexander Albon and Yuki Tsunoda have been named in the top ten for the 2024 Formula 1 British Grand Prix.
*Full summary after results and photos
2024 Formula 1 British Grand Prix Results
Full details of the 2024 Formula 1 British Grand Prix.
With all drivers on medium tyres, apart from the softs of Zhou and Ocon and the hards of Perez, who started from the pit lane, the opening metres of the British Grand Prix were very respectable, with Russell maintaining first place ahead of Hamilton and falling behind Verstappen, who overtook Norris for third place on the podium.
Pierre Gasly, who was at the back of the pack, was unable to even start the race due to a problem with his Alpine and had to pit after the formation lap to retire.
In the opening laps, Mercedes managed to take Verstappen out of the DRS zone, and the fatal duel in Austria between the Dutchman and Norris was repeated, albeit much less aggressively.
Gradually the positions stabilised, with Mercedes in the lead, followed by Verstappen and the two McLarens. Sainz was fifth, one second behind the papaya-coloured cars and more than three seconds ahead of Stroll, who was trying to defend against Leclerc’s attacks. Hulkenberg and Alonso completed the top ten, with Tsunoda trailing behind.
At the tail of the pack, Sergio Perez gradually gained ground after the pit lane start, and by lap 10 the Red Bull Mexican with the new engine was already 16th.
Meanwhile, the gap between Hamilton (2nd) and Verstappen (3rd) reached three seconds, but on the other hand, the Dutchman did not manage to get too far from the McLaren drivers. At the same time, Stroll did his best to defend his seventh place from attacks from Leclerc.
There’s a light rain and tension is building at Silverstone
On lap 15 the first drops started to fall, but without much intensity. At this point Norris took the opportunity to increase the pace and pass Verstappen at Stowe (Turn 15) and return to third place on the podium based on the fastest lap.
Two laps later, as fans began to take out their umbrellas, Piastri also passed Verstappen at Turn 15 and the Dutchman dropped to fifth, showing that Red Bull was lagging behind Mercedes and McLaren at Silverstone.
Up front, in more challenging conditions, Hamilton took a lot of time off Russell, got behind his teammate and managed to overtake him on lap 18. A lap later, Norris also overtook Russell after the Mercedes drivers were slightly off track due to rain.
At the end of the lap, Norris, riding in the rain on dry tyres, overtook Hamilton to take the race lead, with Russell dropping to fourth in favour of Piastri, who also overtook Hamilton’s Mercedes to give McLaren the top two spots.
Charles Leclerc was the first to pit for intermediate tyres on lap 20 (along with Perez, Ocon and Zhou), but with many parts of the track still dry and the rain having eased off, it was quickly demonstrated that green tyres were inappropriate.
Alonso, in difficult conditions, also found himself on the bench and gained several positions to take eighth place, ahead of his teammate and striker Nico Hulkenberg (eighth).
The rain intensifies and the pit stops come
On lap 27, Verstappen, Sainz, Hulkenberg and Stroll pitted because of the threat of rain and the increasingly frequent drops on the car’s visors. A lap later, Norris, Mercedes and Alonso also stopped to take up intermediate positions. Piastri had to wait another lap, which cost him valuable time.
With everyone in the intermediates, Norris led the race by three seconds over Hamilton, with Verstappen on the podium. Russell was fourth, Sainz fifth and Piastri sixth. More than 10 seconds behind, Hulkenberg was seventh, Stroll took the position from Alonso (ninth) with an early stop, and Tsunoda completed the top ten.
The rain was getting lighter and on lap 33 of 52 the intermediates were on almost dry tyres. A lap later, in 34th place, George Russell surprised everyone by coming into the pits after receiving a radio message that he had a hydraulic leak and the Pole was forced to retire while battling Verstappen for the podium.
As a result, Hulkenberg moved up to sixth place, but fell behind Piastri by 18 points. Ahead of him, Hamilton slowly began to reduce the time with Norris, but the difference stabilised at just over 1.5 seconds.
Final sprint on dry tyres
On lap 39 of 52, with the track now fairly dry, Hamilton, Verstappen and Piastri were the first leading drivers to pit for a run on the soft, hard and medium tyres respectively. Alonso also placed the media at the back of the points area.
A lap later, Norris and Sainz also stopped to go soft and hard respectively, but the Briton lost the lead to Hamilton, who overtook him. The Spaniard also dropped to fifth, behind Piastri. Verstappen remained in third.
Behind them, Hulkenberg and Stroll remained sixth and seventh, but Alonso was now less than five seconds behind them in eighth place, with Tsunoda now ninth and Albon tenth.
Using strategic diversity, Hamilton (soft), Norris (soft) and Verstappen (hard) battled for victory at a distance, with the gaps between them becoming ever shorter, and the Dutchman playing with the advantage of not having to manage his tyres.
Cutting time lap by lap, Verstappen entered Norris’ DRS zone on lap 47 and managed to overtake him on lap 48 to move into second position and try to catch Hamilton, who was just over three seconds behind, but in the end he could not fight for the victory, which ended up in the hands of the seven-time world champion and the absolute king of Silverstone.
Carlos Sainz, who was fifth and had a free stop, pitted on the penultimate lap and set the fastest lap of the race to claim the extra point.