SILVERSTONE, England – Lewis Hamilton had to work for it, but he ended Sunday by celebrating his eighth victory in the British Grand Prix at the Silverstone Circuit.
Hamilton didn’t dominate like he had during so many of his previous Formula 1 victories. He took the lead from Charles Leclerc with three laps to go and pulled away to the victory, his 99th during his Formula 1 career.
The race started frantically with polesitter Max Verstappen doing his best to defend against Hamilton in the opening corners. The two would make contact in the Copse corner, sending Verstappen spinning at high speed into a tire barrier and out of the race.
The race was red flagged shortly thereafter, but not before fourth-place starter Leclerc had snuck by Hamilton to take the lead in the aftermath of the contact with Verstappen. The Red Bull driver emerged from his car with the help of safety officials and was later taken to a local hospital for checkups after the high-speed crash, but was later released.
The race would resume with a second standing start and Leclerc got away from Hamilton, who was soon handed a 10-second penalty for the incident with Verstappen that would be applied during his pit stop.
“I was fully alongside him and he didn’t leave me any space,” Hamilton said. “Regardless whether or not I agree with the penalty, I take it on the chin and I just kept working.”
Lerclerc, meanwhile, inched away from Hamilton and appeared in control of the race. Hamilton made his pit stop and served his penalty on lap 27, with Leclerc heading to the pits one lap later. Hamilton emerged from the pits 35 seconds back of Leclerc and with a lot of work to do.
Hamilton went straight to work, dispatching Lando Norris for fourth before setting off in pursuit of teammate Valtteri Bottas in third. Mercedes gave the order and once Hamilton caught Bottas, the two swapped places to move Hamilton to second.
The reigning Formula 1 champion was consistently faster Leclerc, at times lapping more than a second per lap faster as he chopped away at Leclerc’s lead. On lap 50 of 53 the gap had gone from 35 seconds down to less than one second and the battle for the lead was on.
Going into the same corner where Hamilton made contact with Verstappen earlier in the race, Hamilton roared to Leclerc’s inside. Leclerc tried to stay in the gas and exit the corner in front, but he ran wide and Hamilton emerged with the lead to the delight of the British fans that packed the grandstands.
Hamilton eased away from Leclerc thereafter, beating him to the finish by nearly four seconds as Bottas completed the podium in third.
“It was such a physically difficult race,” Hamilton said. “I’m so proud of everyone for continuing to work even though we’ve had a bit of a deficit (to Red Bull).”
Leclerc settled for second after leading all but the final three laps of the race.
“It’s difficult to enjoy 100 percent,” Lerclerc said after his first podium of the year. “I gave not 100 percent, but I gave 200 percent. I gave all of me, but it was just not enough in the last two laps. Congratulations to Lewis, he did an incredible job.”
Norris was fourth at the finish, with his McLaren teammate Daniel Ricciardo finishing fifth.
With Hamilton’s win and Verstappen failing to finish, Hamilton was able to cut the deficit to Verstappen in the Formula 1 driver standings to eight points.