Lewis Hamilton broke yet another record at the British Grand Prix, after claiming his thirteenth podium at the circuit making him the new record holder for most podiums at a single venue.
The seven-time World Champion left nothing on the Silverstone International Circuit, after coming the closest he has in a long-time to victory. Hamilton initially made an electric start, going from fifth to third in the opening corners. However, due to Guanyu Zhou’s huge crash at the first corner, the race was red-flagged and restarted using the initial starting grid.
At the restart, Hamilton dropped to sixth behind Lando Norris. The Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team driver quickly dealt with his compatriot though, and was soon up to fourth after Sergio Pérez pitted for a nose change. Fourth became third when Max Verstappen was forced into the pits early, after running over a piece of carbon.
This left Hamilton with only the Scuderia Ferrari pair ahead, who he hunted down as quickly as possible. The Brit then found himself leading a race for the first-time this year, after the Ferrari duo pitted. Hamilton eventually emerged in third-place after his own stop, before pitting again for Soft tyres only a few laps later due to a late Safety Car.
This saw a huge ten lap shootout for the podium, as Carlos Sainz Jr cleared off into the distance after quickly overtaking his team-mate at the restart. Hamilton was in a great tussle with Pérez and Charles Leclerc, which involved the Brit overtaking both incredibly at the last corner!
Pérez went on to finish second ahead of Hamilton, leaving the Mercedes driver and Leclerc to fight for third. After initially getting past, Leclerc reovertook Hamilton around the outside of Copse Corner, where Hamilton and Verstappen collided in 2021. The 37-year-old eventually made his way back past Leclerc down the Hangar straight.
It meant Hamilton secured back-to-back podiums and his tenth consecutive at Silverstone. The seven-time World Champion was pleased after the race; however, believes there is still work to be done.
“I gave it everything today! I was chasing, trying to get those Ferraris, but congratulations to Carlos. They were just too quick today for us and at the end I was in amongst that battle with Checo. Those guys were just too quick on the straights for me today, but I’m so, so grateful for all the hard work the team did to get an upgrade here, we’ve made a step closer to them, so we’ve got to keep pushing!
“We lost a little bit of time in the pit stop, and then I was chasing, and chasing, and chasing, but the pace was great on both sets of tyres and then at the end there it was just a little bit difficult.
“Once you get a Red Bull behind, they’re so fast on the straights. We’ve got some improvements to make but this is a huge bonus for us to be on the podium. I’m glad everyone was safe from that big crash at the beginning of the day. Thank you to everybody, we’re going to continue to push.”
“I jumped out of the car to see if Zhou was okay” – George Russell
George Russell was unfortunately involved in Zhou’s first corner crash, which saw the Chinese driver flip over and slide into the gravel. Zhou then flipped again when the gravel came to an end, with his C42 hitting the protective fencing after flying over the tyre barrier. Eventually, Zhou’s car came to rest between the tyre wall and the tecpro barrier, in horrific circumstances.
Russell was the one who hit Zhou, after the Brit suffered an instant puncture after Pierre Gasly was sandwiched between the Mercedes, and Alfa Romeo F1 Team ORLEN driver.
Russell, as a result, clipped Zhou’s rear wheel which sent him instantly flipping over. Heroically, Russell jumped out of his car and ran over to the site of Zhou’s stuck C42, in order to assist in removing the Chinese driver from his car.
When Russell eventually returned to his W13, he was unable to start it. He insisted after the race that he told the marshals not to touch his car; however, after running to the pits and back to ask his team what to do, his car had been put on a flatbed. This meant Russell couldn’t restart the race, due to it being touched by the marshals.
Russell was of course disappointed, but was more pleased to see that Zhou is okay.
“We started on the Hard tyre because I made a mistake in qualifying and we thought that risk gave us the best opportunity later in the race but there was just very little grip at the start. It’s the hardest compound, it’s cold out there and I got swamped by all the cars. Next thing I know I got touched, I was in the side of Zhou, and that was it.
“I jumped out the car to see if Zhou was okay and I saw it was red flagged straight away but when I came back to the car, I couldn’t quite get it started for whatever reason, so I ran back to the team to check.
“I asked the marshals to leave the car and next thing, when I got back, the car was on the back of the flatbed which meant I couldn’t restart. It was obviously frustrating for my race because the car just had the puncture and there’s no doubt we had the pace to come back to P6 today but I’m just glad that Zhou was OK.”
