Lewis Hamilton reacts to 'incredible' win
And with that, I’m on my bike. Here, once again, is Giles Richards’ report on Lewis Hamilton’s record-breaking sixth British GP win. Bye!
And here’s Lewis Hamilton:
If I’m honest, coming here I didn’t know how many [British GPs] I’d won. I still remember my first win here, my first pole here. Every year is such a challenge. This track is amazing, I can’t put into words just how spectacular this track is to drive. To be amongst the greats that have shined on this circuit, I’m so incredibly proud to be a part of it.
[On his final lap, the fastest of the race] I was going for it. I saved just enough I think to have something left at the end. It was close, but the lap was looking really good. I really wanted that as well. Yesterday, what’s crazy is that, second is great, third is great, but first is something unique. When you’re striving for perfection and you don’t reach it, you can still be proud of yourself but I’m hard on myself. I was a little bit frustrated yesterday. I wanted to come here today and do something powerful. I wanted to harness the fans’ energy. I feel like I captivated that energy that they had and used it.
Here’s Max Verstappen, initially on his battles with Leclerc:
They were very hard and aggressive, so that was good. I didn’t want to risk too much with divebombing or whatever. The race was long and we were clearly faster. But it was good to see and good to be in it.
Out of the pits I locked up a bit, had no grip. So he went by again. Then I got round the outside of Seb but got rear-ended. He could see I was going to close the door on the inside, so a bit different to Baku. I think he could expect me to close the door. We already spoke to each other, he apologised. At the end of the day what can you do.
I don’t know how I brought that car to the finish. The power steering failed, my seat was out. When I jumped out of the car the whole floor and the rear was destroyed. I’m so happy to finish fifth.
Jenson Button calls it “one of the best British grands prix I’ve ever seen”. That’s a reflection on the battles between Red Bull and Ferrari, with Leclerc and Verstappen having a particularly great duel, rather than anything that happened at the head of the race, though for the first 20 laps Hamilton and Bottas were also putting on a show.
Giles Richards has filed his report from Silverstone:
Lewis Hamilton won the British Grand Prix, taking the victory after an initial dogged fight with his Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas fell in his favour, during a safety car period. Once in the lead he ran a controlled race from the front to ensure a record sixth win at Silverstone.
Bottas was second, in front of the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc who had enjoyed an almost race-long scrap with the Red Bulls of Max Verstappen who was fifth and Pierre Gasly who was fourth. Sebastian Vettel also vied with Verstappen but came off badly. He hit the Dutchman and was given a penalty, finishing in 16th place.
Much more here:
Finishing the race with the fastest lap, on old, hard tyres, was a big statement from Hamilton. He might been a bit lucky to sneak past Bottas while the safety car was out, but that was champion racing.
Updated
The latest driver standings are as follows:
1. Hamilton/Mercedes, 223 points
2. Bottas/Mercedes, 184
3. Verstappen/Red Bull, 136
4. Vettel/Ferrari, 123
5. Leclerc/Ferrari, 120
6. Gasly/Red Bull, 55
7. Sainz/McLaren, 38
8. Raikkonen/Alfa Romeo 25
9. Norris/McLaren 22
10. Ricciardo/Renault 22
The top three drivers are on the podium and enjoying their anthems.
Here’s the Press Association’s on-the-flag hot take:
Lewis Hamilton won the British Grand Prix for a record sixth time.
The Formula One world champion took advantage of a safety car to jump ahead of Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas, delighting the bumper 141,000-strong Silverstone crowd.
The win, Hamilton’s seventh from 10 rounds, takes the Briton ever closer to a sixth world title. He is now 39 points clear of Bottas in the championship standings. On a sensational day for Hamilton, the Englishman also secured a bonus point by posting a stunning track record on his final lap.
Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc finished third after Sebastian Vettel crashed into the back of Max Verstappen. Red Bull driver Verstappen managed to finish fifth, but Vettel dropped to 16th with the damage sustained in the incident. The Ferrari driver was also hit with a 10-second penalty for causing the collision.
Lando Norris crossed the line a disappointing 11th on his maiden home event, the British teenager’s race scuppered by strategy.
For Hamilton, his stroke of luck arrived on lap 20 of the 52-lap race when Antonio Giovinazzi beached his Alfa Romeo at Brooklands. Out came the safety car, and in came Hamilton for his one and only stop.
Bottas had already pitted, and with the field driving slowly, Hamilton was able to nip in for fresh tyres to retain his lead. The Englishman crossed the line 25 seconds clear of Bottas, surpassing Britain’s double world champion Jim Clark and the Frenchman Alain Prost as the standalone master of his home race.
“What a day, I love you Silverstone,” said Hamilton on his warm-down lap.
Charles Leclerc, who had a fabulous ding-dong with Max Verstappen, is happy:
It’s probably the race I enjoyed the most in my Formula One career. With the safety car we lost a bit of position, it wasn’t great for us. I’m extremely happy to finish third and for the battle we had on the track.
The last race was an eye-opener for me, really showing how far we could go. I’m really happy that this race has gone like this.
Valtteri Bottas says this:
I don’t know what to say. I stopped first, and I was still effectively winning the race until there was a safety car, and Lewis got a free stop there and got me there. Not really my day, but at least the pace was good and it felt good out there. For sure there’s positives. We had a good fight. I’ll keep fighting. It’s not over yet.
Lewis Hamilton has a chat:
Honestly, I can’t terll you how proud I ame to be here today in front of my home crowd, with my whole family here today, my team. You’d think you would get used to something like that, but it feels like the first time and I’m forever grateful to everyone who’s come out.
I couldn’t have done it without my team, and the guys back at the factory, and their wives and their kids who support them. When I tell people thankyou to the team, there’s nearly 2,000 people who make this possible. I’m just a chink in that chain, and I’m super proud to be a part of this.
Confirmation of the final classification:
A race to remember at Silverstone 🇬🇧#BritishGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/IAlJkw6xy5
— Formula 1 (@F1) July 14, 2019
Hamilton stops on the track, while a Martial brings him a Union flag to wave. This is his sixth British GP, after previous wins in 2008, 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017, a remarkable record. He thus overtakes Jim Clark and Alain Prost, who both had five wins, and now has the greatest record of all in this race.
Updated
The final top 10:
1. Lewis Hamilton
2. Valtteri Bottas (+24.928)
3. Charles Leclerc
4. Pierre Gasly
5. Max Verstappen
6. Carlos Sainz
7. Daniel Ricciardo
8. Kimi Raikkonen
9. Daniil Kvyat
10. Nico Hulkenberg
BREAKING: @LewisHamilton wins a record 6th British Grand Prix!! 🏁🙌#BritishGP 🇬🇧 #F1 pic.twitter.com/aamLgyp2yc
— Formula 1 (@F1) July 14, 2019
Lewis Hamilton wins the 2019 British Grand Prix!
Lap 52 of 52: Hamilton sets a new fastest lap with his final effort, and he’s won the British GP yet again!
Updated
Lap 52 of 52: Hamilton is in his last lap, with space in front and behind. There’s nothing to stop him now.
Lap 50 of 52: Sainz v Ricciardo is the red-hot battle for sixth. There’s but fractions of a second between them, but the five places ahead of them look sewn up.
Lap 48 of 52: The Mercedes engineers are back out, in case Hamilton decides on a tyre change. Bottas, with his fresh soft tyres, is the fastest car on the track and has just set a new fastest lap. The update is that Bottas reported some tyre trouble, so Hamilton was told to stay out, so no orders were ignored.
Lap 47 of 52: Bottas re-emerges, and he’s 22.98 seconds behind Hamilton with just five laps to go!
Lap 46 of 52: Now there is action in the Mercedes pits. Bottas comes in for his second change, and Hamilton is told to stay out for the remainder of the race.
Lap 45 of 52: Hamilton is called into the pits, but he ignores the request and flies past.
Lap 44 of 52: Nico Hulkenberg slips down to 11th, after Daniil Kvyat streaks past him.
Lap 43 of 52: Vettel has received a 10-second penalty for causing the collision with Max Verstappen.
Lap 42 of 52: Hamilton has 10 laps to go, and looks comfortable, particularly with Bottas likely to pit again.
Lap 41 of 52: The floor of Verstappen’s car has been damaged, but nothing that can be changed needs to be changed.
Incredible scenes here at Silverstone!
— Formula 1 (@F1) July 14, 2019
Stewards are looking at the incident between Vettel and Verstappen#BritishGP 🇬🇧 #F1 pic.twitter.com/awraiuT6se
Lap 40 of 52: The upshot of all that is that Leclerc is third, about 18 seconds behind Bottas in second. Gasly is fourth, with Verstappen fifth. Vettel has dropped down to 17th, with a potential penalty to come.
Lap 39 of 52: Both Verstappen and Vettel are back on the track, but the latter at least has sustained significant damage. The Ferrari pits, and gets a new front wing. Verstappen is carrying on.
Updated
Lap 38 of 52: Crash! Verstappen overtakes Vettel’s Ferrari, who then drives right into the back of Verstappen’s Red Bull! Both skid off the track!
Updated
Lap 37 of 52: So Leclerc is fifth, but nearly five seconds behind Verstappen in fourth. There is a 12-second gap between Gasly in sixth and Carlos Sainz in seventh.
Updated
Lap 36 of 52: Leclerc sweeps past Gasly, lovely driving! Gasly tries to get back ahead round Brooklands, but no dice!
Lap 35 of 52: Further back, Albon, Raikkonen and Hulkenberg are separated by 1.1 seconds, with Albon clinging on to 10th place at the moment.
Lap 33 of 52: It’s unfortunate that the lead has changed hands without any actual overtaking happening. So far it’s been a race of strategy and opportunism. Hamilton is currently a bit over two seconds ahead of Bottas, with Vettel a further eight seconds behind.
Lap 30 of 52: Lando Norris gets on the radio, to complain of being “screwed over by the strategy”. He will have to pit again, and is in eighth at the moment.
Lap 28 of 52: Bottas will need to return to the pits at some point, while ahead of him Hamilton will hope to stay out for the remainder.
Lap 27 of 52: Yellow flags are being waved at Brooklands, though we haven’t been told why.
Lap 25 of 52: Approaching the halfway stage, the current front six:
1. Hamilton
2. Bottas
3. Vettel
4. Gasly
5. Verstappen
6. Leclerc
Updated
Lap 24 of 52: That was nearly ghastly for Gasly, who locks up and his Red Bull team-mate, Max Verstappen, nearly drives into the back of him!
Lap 24 of 52: The safety car goes in, and the impact of the various pit-lane shenanigans while it was involved is that Lewis Hamilton leads the race!
Lap 23 of 52: Leclerc gets on the radio to ask “how the hell did we lose the position”. He’s told to concentrate on the race. He’s currently sixth, with the safety car still out.
Lap 22 of 52: Giovinazzi’s mistake at the Vale, and the subsequent deployment of the safety car, might allow Hamilton to move to a one-stop strategy and thereby give him a crucial advantage over Bottas.
Updated
Lap 21 of 52: Vettel also comes in, and like Hamilton has hard tyres fitted. Verstappen pits for the second time, and leaves with the same, fresh tyres.
Lap 20 of 52: Antonio Giovinazzi is stuck in a gravel trap, and the safety car is deployed. Hamilton takes the opportunity to pop into the pits.
Lap 19 of 52: Verstappen v Leclerc is the battle of the moment. Verstappen has a go at Stowe, where he is almost pushed onto the grass as Leclerc dives in front of him.
Lap 18 of 52: Lando Norris and Alexander Albon have had some kind of off-camera pit-lane something-or-other. An investigation has been launched, we’re told.
Lap 17 of 52: Valtteri Bottas comes in for a fresh set of mediums. Two-stop strategies seem the order of the day.
Lap 15 of 52: Leclerc overtakes almost instantly once they get out of the pits, after Verstappen drifted way wide – he gets on the radio to tell his mechanics that he had no grip.
Lap 14 of 52: Leclerc and Verstappen both come into the pits! Both come out with fresh sets of medium compound tyres, and Verstappen comes out of the pit lane first!
Lap 13 of 52: Pierre Gasly becomes the first of the leading group to pit. He comes out with a fresh set of hard tyres.
Lap 11 of 52: Verstappen tries to overtake Leclerc, and when his move fails Vettel attacks him from behind, and from trying to third he’s suddenly fighting off fifth! In the end, positions remain unchanged.
Lap 10 of 57: The two Mercedes have stretched their lead a bit, and are about half a second ahead of Leclerc in third.
Lap 8 of 57: Kevin Magnussen is back in the pits, and this time he won’t be leaving them. That’s his first retirement of the season.
Lap 7 of 57: We see replays of the two Haas cars bumping each other in the opening lap, which was no the ideal start to proceedings.
The top four remain in the order they started the race in. Behind them Sebastian Vettel has overtaken Pierre Gasly to take fifth.
The race is at the front, where Hamilton is sniffing around Bottas. He looks one side, he looks the other. Then Hamilton takes the lead at Luffield! And then Bottas takes it back at Copse!
A horrible start for Haas, with problems to both cars and Magnussen already lapped by the leaders.
Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen are forced into the pits in the very early stages, with rear punctures apparently to blame.
Norris has overtaken Daniel Ricciardo to take seventh place. Before the race Norris said that him v Ricciardo was his mini-race.
Go go go go go! Bottas holds on to his lead into the first corner, and it looks a clean start.
Updated
The grid fills, and actual racing is about to happen. Hold on to your hats!
The lights turn green, and off they go on the formation lap.
Preambles complete, we are ready to race. Well, not us. We’re ready to sit on our sofas. But some other people are.
Pierre Gasly’s car is also having some last-minute surgery. People in Red Bull overalls are sprinting around the pit lane.
Max Verstappen’s rear wing is being changed on the grid, with mechanics scurrying hither and yon, one of them pushing Sky’s cameras away.
“Hopefully I can put on a good show and go forwards, not backwards,” Norris says, setting the bar high.
“What an embarrassment of sporting riches we have today,” writes Guy Hornsby. “The race should be Lewis’s providing he makes a fast start, but predictions make fools of us all. But it’s hard not to be impressed by Lando Norris, not least because it’s finally an improved year for McLaren.” He is a really engaging character, and given a fair wind could be a star.
The national anthem is warbled. The Red Arrows fly past. The clock ticks.
Brilliantly chaotic scenes on the grid. Lee Mack is there. Philip Schofield has a quick chat. Two Spice Girls (scary and ginger, since you ask) are there. Daniel Craig is looking predictably suave. “It’s my first time, I’m just trying to take it all in,” he says. Apparently it’s the 1,007th grand prix, which is why he’s been invited, and why Red Bull have a James Bond-themed paint job.
Sky and Channel 4 do their grid walks. Both bump into Mo Farah at the same time, and interview him together. He’s asked if he’s spoken to Lewis Hamilton. “He was in that zone,” he says. “Once someone’s in that zone you just want to leave him there.”
On Sky, Lando Norris is interviewed while driving round Silverstone, an enterprise ruined both by the fact he is unable to talk and drive at the same time, and by the fact he gets the car stuck in a gravel trap. “that’s the most embarrassing thing I think I’ve ever done,” he concludes.
On Channel 4, Gareth Southgate is interviewing Toto Wolff. So far, they have repeatedly established their admiration for each other. They eventually move on to management techniques. “Mistakes happen everywhere, but you can only eliminate them if you discuss them,” says Wolff. Southgate nods enthusiastically.
Sky interview Steve Coogan, who “was invited down here by Lewis”. They’re unlikely chums, are they not? “I’m quite friendly with him,” he adds. “He keeps threatening to make an appearance on Alan Partridge. Hopefully Lewis will do what he normally does.”
This is a good thing:
Over 50 years, Frank Williams has amassed 9 constructor titles, 7 driver titles, 114 race wins, and countless unforgettable memories
— Formula 1 (@F1) July 14, 2019
We decided to add one more...@pirellisport @MercedesAMGF1 @WilliamsRacing #F1PirelliHotLaps pic.twitter.com/JTeAy49YjN
Hello world!
The third of the three sporting crown jewels glittering their way across this English Sunday afternoon is at Silverstone, where Lewis Hamilton – winner of four of the last five grands prix this year, and four of the last five British grands prix to boot – starts second. Here’s Giles Richards, setting the scene. Welcome!
Updated
