Luke’s Weekend Review – British GP 2024

McLaren at this stage seem to have found the pace in the race as on Lap 17 we also see Oscar Piastri make a similar move on Verstappen moving himself into 4^th place. Someone else who was able to start finding pace in the tricky conditions was Hamilton as on Lap 18 we see him close in on Russell as he takes over a second away from the deficit and coming into Stowe, Hamilton has DRS and was able to overtake his teammate for the lead of the British GP. On Lap 19, Russell tries to come back a bit at Hamilton into Turn 1 but wasn’t able to make a move but both Mercedes drivers went wide and off track and both managed to rejoin with no damage, however Norris caught up with the pair and was able to get past Russell and get into 2^nd place.

DRS gets disabled on Lap 19 as the track was getting trickier to drive on in these mixed conditions, but Norris was in a groove at this stage of the race as on Lap 20 he was able to take the lead from Hamilton into Abbey where at the same time we see Piastri overtake Russell for 3^rd place. On the same lap, Piastri was also able to get Hamilton into Stowe to make it a McLaren 1-2 coming into Lap 21.

At the end of Lap 20 we see Charles Leclerc, Sergio Perez, Esteban Ocon and Zhou Guanyu come into the pits for inters as Hamilton gets on the radio saying it’s still too dry for inters and he was right as Perez a lap later came on the radio complaining that it was way too dry for the inters and Ocon immediately called it quits on Lap 23 as he went back for the mediums. Lap 24 we also see the DRS gets turned back on and Leclerc was still on the inters and on Lap 25 he gets lapped and was also going off the track due to low grip.

Rain starts coming back around Lap 26 as we see Oscar Piastri close in on his teammate as he gets within a second from Norris and at the end of the lap, we see Max Verstappen and Carlos Sainz pull the trigger to get on the inters and trying to undercut some drivers. A lot of other drivers followed suit behind them. On Lap 27 we see Norris pit, Hamilton and Russell also pit for inters with Mercedes double stacking and Piastri stayed out an extra lap as he would have lost time if McLaren double stacked him and Norris. This however would have been better as by the time Piastri made it wound the track to pit at the end of Lap 28, his teammate Norris was already only 2.5 seconds behind him and Piastri comes out in 6^th after his pit while we see that the undercut for Verstappen and Sainz worked as they were now running in 3^rd and 5^th which put Verstappen back in this race.

On Lap 30 we get a weather update that the rain is bound to stop in 15 minutes which meant that teams need to start thinking again to find the right time to swap back onto slicks. Lap 31 we start hearing some drivers complaining that the inters are degrading as Verstappen comes on the radio to complain to his engineer. And on Lap 34 is where it was heartbreak for Russell as Mercedes call him in to retire the car due to a water pressure issue and that was it for Russell as he went from Pole Position to retirement in his Home GP. On Lap 35 we also see a near race ending moment for Kevin Magnussen as coming round Stowe, the car snaps and he luckily manages to control the slide and stay on track.

On Lap 36 we see Hamilton put on a charge on Norris as he starts closing in on him to for for an attack for the lead of the race once more, and this is where the track was drying out as the radio chatter was once again all about tyres and which slick tyre to go on at the crossover point. And it wasn’t long before we knew as on Lap 38, we see some drivers pull the trigger as we see Magnussen and Daniel Ricciardo be the first drivers to go onto the slicks and both of them opted for the soft tyre. Hamilton and Verstappen also came in on the same lap and Hamilton opted to also get on the softs while Verstappen decided to go on a brand new set of hards, Piastri behind them also pits and goes onto a brand new set of mediums as Norris pits a lap later than them and decides to go on the softs as well to cover off Hamilton. McLaren unfortunately had a slow stop, and this meant that Norris came back out in 2^nd as Hamilton had a great outlap and the crowd went wild.

On Lap 42 we start seeing Verstappen and Piastri trading fastest lap after fastest lap as both the medium and the hard tyres were working very nicely for the pair. And the Hards were working so good for Verstappen that he was able to catch up to the back of Norris on Lap 47 and by Lap 48, Verstappen had DRS and was able to get Norris for 2^nd on the outside of Stowe. Verstappen from here got on the charge for Hamilton to try and get the win at the British GP. Hamilton however had a bit to say about this as with 3 laps to go he was able to keep Verstappen at bay 3 seconds behind on his old softs. On Lap 51 we see Carlos Sainz come in the pits one last time for softs in an attempt to take the fastest lap as he had a free pitstop to Hulkenberg behind.

Lewis Hamilton comes round to take the chequered flag for the 9^th time in his career at Silverstone, Hamilton was followed by Max Verstappen, Lando Norris, Oscar Piastri, Carlos Sainz, Nico Hulkenberg, Lance Stroll, Fernando Alonso, Alex Albon and Yuki Tsunoda form the Top 10. Hamilton makes it 104 wins total in his career with this win and breaks the record of most wins at a single circuit as before he was tied first with Michael Shumacher with 8 wins at the same circuit. This win also made him the only F1 driver to ever win a race after their 300 GP start and the longest period between 1^st win and latest win as it has been over 17 years since Hamilton’s first F1 win and about 2.5 years since Hamilton been on the top step of the podium since Saudi Arabia 2021. Hamilton gets the driver of the day and rightly so after that brilliant drive where he kept his head down and never gave up, Carlos Sainz was able to get the fastest lap on his last lap of the race as well to get an extra championship point.

Who do you think was the biggest winners and the biggest losers of the British GP? We now head into a week break before we head back to the Hungaro Ring for the Hungarian GP.