Hamilton Seals Epic 104th Win
McLaren Snatch Defeat from the Jaws of Victory
It seems a thousand years ago that the start of the season suggested Red Bull dominance.
Silverstone in 2024 gave us the 104th win of Hamilton’s career, the sixth winner in 12 races, and a race in which any one of five drivers could have conceivably won it.
But on the day, it was the most successful driver of all time who claimed a hugely popular win.
Hamilton Back to Winning Ways
Off the line, it was formation flying at the front, with Hamilton retaining 2nd behind Russell (Verstappen passed Norris at the first corner). Things settled down fairly quickly (Norris and Piastri passing Verstappen on laps 15 and 17 respectively), but then a period of high stress arrived.
There was quite a bit of light rain, enough to make the track slippery but not enough to warrant intermediates. The top drivers all stayed out, a few further down took a risk (including Leclerc and Perez), shifted onto inters, and found the rubber getting torn up.
But in those conditions, Hamilton was way faster than Russell and passed him for the lead. The bad news for Mercedes was that the McLaren was even better, with Norris and then Piastri driving straight past the Silver Arrows (aided by Hamilton and Russell both running wide).
Verstappen held out longer than Leclerc and Perez, and boxed at just the right time for inters, during a second, heavier bout of rain. The Mercedes double-stacked, Hamilton ahead of Russell, McLaren opted to pit Norris and then wait a lap for Piastri, which cost the Aussie a huge amount of time (around 18–20s).
Come lap 34, Russell had to retire due to reliability, robbing Mercedes of a potential 1–2 and making Hamilton fans rather nervous. Luckily, the problem did not affect the other car.
The last pit stops, from inters to dry tyres, was fascinating because of the mix of approaches. Hamilton went on soft tyres first, Norris doing likewise a lap later and losing the lead due to the delay. Verstappen pitted at the same time as Hamilton and went for hard. Piastri insisted on the medium.
Verstappen was faster than the two leaders, caught and passed Norris and then started closing the gap to Hamilton for the win. But it was Piastri who was fastest on track, taking chunks out of the gap to Norris every lap. Yet he was too far back to do anything thanks to the first bungled pit stop strategy.
Verstappen got closer, ever closer, to Hamilton but the Briton was able to hold on to win by 1.4s against the Dutchman, claiming a record 104th win in total and 9th at Silverstone (the most of any driver at a single circuit).
Hamilton drove almost perfectly, the only slight flaw being when he went off-track and made it easier for the McLarens to get past in the first rainfall. He kept his car on a wet circuit with dry tyres, and managed to keep the soft tyres alive long enough to stave off the substantial threat of Verstappen.
Hamilton was also decisive on whether to come in or stay out, and used that judgement to make the stops at the right time.
The race was enthralling, and Hamilton finally getting his first win since 2021 was quite the fairytale ending.
McLaren’s Strategic Bungling
It was more of a nightmare for McLaren, however. Pitting Norris a lap later cost him first the lead then even 2nd place. Not double stacking the cars was a far worse call, as it cost Piastri around 18s or more (he’d been nose to tail with Norris but the Briton was only about 5s behind him when the Aussie finally came into the pits for his first stop).
Did this matter? Oh, yes. Piastri was the fastest man on track at the end and just 12s off the lead. If he had made the same call for medium tyres at the end, he would have won the race.
Much is made of Leclerc’s bad luck, but between a safety car earlier this year robbing him of a podium at one race and the awful strategy call here costing him a potential victory, not to mention the tiny track limits violation in qualifying stopping him claiming a maiden win in Austria, Piastri’s had some atrocious misfortune.
McLaren could have won this race with either car. Yet they ended up 3rd and 4th. They stand a decent shot of claiming the title for the team but this is why Norris will not beat Verstappen this year. The first pit stop was made more or less at the right time but not double stacking (which would cost a few seconds) cost Piastri almost a pit stop’s worth of time.
The second stop was made too late, and the soft tyre was the wrong choice. Verstappen on the hard was much faster, and Piastri on the medium even quicker. But there were insufficient laps for the Dutchman to win or the Aussie to get near the podium.
Much is made of Ferrari’s strategic bungling (Leclerc shifting to inters saw him finish 14th) but this time around McLaren had not one but two drivers capable of victory and a mix of caution and poor judgement cost them. Verstappen extended his lead in the title race.
For all the excitement of multiple drivers winning races, the tenacious consistency of Verstappen aided by the rotating nature of his rival at any given race is going to ensure he wins another title in 2024.
Hulkenberg Recovers from Handbrake Start
Hulkenberg did not have a good start, and got passed by the world and his cat. This meant he got lumbered behind Leclerc, who was stuck behind Stroll. It was lovely for Sainz, however, who was able to scamper off and build such a lead that, come the last lap, he was able to make a tilt at fastest lap having made an extra stop for new soft tyres.
Ultimately, the German driver was able to make his way ahead of both Stroll and Leclerc and finished less than a second ahead of a car (Stroll) for the second race in a row. He also had a second consecutive 6th-place finish. Given his car this is pretty fantastic. His teammate Magnussen finished 12th, behind Logan Sargeant. This infusion of points has put Haas on 27, just 4 behind RB and 18 ahead of Alpine. Right now, Audi must be thinking they made a great call hiring Hulkenberg.
Perez Woe (Again)
Perez had another weekend to forget. From beaching his Red Bull in the gravel during Q1 to an anonymous race (not aided by rolling the dice with inters during the lighter, initial period of rain) he never seemed to threaten the points. He wasn’t the only good driver to have a poor weekend, Leclerc was 14th. But Perez finished 17th. The only man to finish the race behind him was Zhou Guanyu.
Verstappen dragged his Red Bull to within a second and a half of victory. Perez had an amazing 2020 season but that form seems utterly gone. In 2020, he was 4th and beat the second Red Bull (Albon) with 125 points to 105.
In 2024, at the time of writing, he’s on 118 points, behind his team mate, both Ferraris, both McLarens, and likely to soon be behind both Mercedes. Verstappen’s on 255 points, more than twice Perez’s. In the first five races the Mexican was on the podium four times, but he scored more points in the first race alone than in the last six.
Changing Fortunes at Alpine and Aston Martin
Obviously a lot of attention was focused on the British contenders and how Verstappen would do, but there were some interesting things further down the pecking order. Aston Martin have been rather ropey recently, but in both qualifying and the race had solid pace at Silverstone.
Stroll finished 7th and Alonso 8th, netting them some much needed points after nothing to show for either Spain or Austria. It also marked something of a return to form for Alonso, who has been oddly off-colour of late.
The reverse happened at Alpine. Having begun 2024 with a dreadful car, they recovered remarkably well and in the six races preceding Silverstone only had one pointless race (having failed to score at the initial five weekends).
Gasly was always going to be on the back foot due to changing umpteen parts and starting last (19th due to Perez’s pit lane start) but he then didn’t even get to start the race due to reliability letting him down. Ocon qualified 18th, ahead only of destined-for-the-back Gasly and Perez, who had put his Red Bull in the gravel.
Come the race, Ocon was 16th, ahead only of Perez and Zhou. Right now, Alpine are 5 points clear of Williams, with Albon doing well to snaffle 2 points in the UK. They need to improve their form to avoid Albon/Williams potentially passing them in the standings.
Richard
