Lewis Hamilton recently reflected on his journey to his 104th victory at the British Grand Prix, which he described as a ‘fairytale’. This win was especially meaningful because it marked his return to the top of the podium for the first time since 2021 after enduring two full seasons of Mercedes’ inability to compete with Red Bull and Max Verstappen. Since introducing their major front-wing update in Canada, Mercedes has been getting better and better with each race.
At Silverstone, they finally managed to lock out the front row of the grid for Sunday’s Grand Prix. However, McLaren remained the favorite for the win and the looming wet conditions didn’t make the job any easier for the Mercedes duo. Hamilton , who was being led by his teammate for most of the first stint and then by the McLaren pair of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri during the second stint, got lucky.
George Russell faced a water pump issue and had to retire the car mid-race, while McLaren made bad strategy calls to ruin the chance of victory for both their drivers. The biggest mistake from McLaren came during the final pitstops when they left Norris out for an extra lap and also put him on the wrong set of tires (softs). What helped Hamilton further is that even Max Verstappen didn’t have the pace of the front runners throughout the race.
Hamilton spoke about the victory in an exclusive with Esquire. When asked about his feelings after the win, Hamilton admitted he did not expect that a victory was.