British Grand Prix: Weekend Recap

Just 4 days after the dramatic race at the Red Bull Ring, Formula One returned for the final round of the European triple-header at Silverstone. Great Britain serves as the home race for 3 drivers, 4 teams, and the sport itself, with the first-ever Formula One Grand Prix taking place at Silverstone back in 1950. Lando Norris and Max Verstappen emerged from the Austrian Grand Prix weekend as the favorites for victory, but with margins as fine as ever, it was anyone's race to win this weekend.

Friday Practice Sessions

The opening day of the 2024 British Grand Prix weekend saw McLaren dominate both practice sessions, with Lando Norris setting the fastest time of the day of 1m26.549s in FP2. Red Bull’s Sergio Perez secured the second-fastest time in FP2, but his teammate Max Verstappen struggled, finishing in an uncharacteristic seventh place. Red Bull did run their engines in a lower power mode during practice, suggesting likely improvement later in the weekend. The Milton Keynes-based outfit is sporting a special livery this weekend, inspired by their 2015 pre-season testing camouflage livery. As is Williams, wearing the Union Jack on the side of their cars. Nico Hulkenberg made a surprise leap to fourth place with a phenomenal lap, demonstrating the potency of the thoroughly upgraded Haas VF24.

Earlier in FP1, rain affected the session, delaying track evolution. At the end of the hour, Norris led with a time of 1m27.420s, followed by Lance Stroll and teammate Oscar Piastri. The session was notable for Yuki Tsunoda spinning out coming out of turn 7, Oscar Piastri encountering a fuel cell issue, and four rookies getting track time. The newly announced 2025 Haas driver Oliver Bearman got an hour of running in Magnussen's car, while Jack Doohan, whose FP1 session in Canada was interrupted by unforeseen rain, drove Pierre Gasly's A524. Franco Colapinto replaced Logan Sargeant at Williams for the session, and Isack Hadjar borrowed Perez’s RB20.

Overall, McLaren impressed in the short runs, but Red Bull's strategic tactics and long-run performance suggested an exhilarating battle between Verstappen and Norris for the rest of the weekend. The stage was set for a thrilling battle at Silverstone: McLaren and Redbull were in the mix, as expected, but so too were both of the Mercedes. The Ferraris showed glimpses of pace but were in a bit of no man's land throughout the day. Aston Martin seemed to have bounced back after a difficult run of races. George Russell, Lewis Hamilton, and Lando Norris were all fighting for glory on home soil this weekend. The home heroes all looked to have a great shot at victory on Sunday, but Lando Norris seemed to have the edge over his compatriots at that point.

Final Practice

George Russell claimed the fastest time in a wet FP3 session at the British Grand Prix, narrowly beating teammate Lewis Hamilton by 0.035 seconds. Despite a red flag and persistent rain throughout the session, track conditions improved enough for Russell to set a time of 1m37.529s, which was still over 10 seconds slower than Friday's dry times. The session saw early tentative laps due to the wet conditions, but as the rain subsided slightly, intermediate tires became viable. Mercedes’ decision to run a high downforce setup this weekend seemed to be paying dividends.

Yuki Tsunoda initially set competitive times, but the session was interrupted by Pierre Gasly's off-track incident, causing a brief red flag. Following the restart, the track continued to improve, and drivers began posting faster laps, with Oscar Piastri significantly improving his times.

As the rain lightened, drivers from Mercedes, McLaren, Ferrari, Aston Martin, and Red Bull, traded fastest times. But it was the Mercedes who looked particularly impressive in the wet, dethroning Friday favorite McLaren. Hamilton briefly led with a 1m38.065s before Russell set the session's best time.

Lando Norris, who was fastest in FP1 and FP2, ended the session third, followed by Carlos Sainz in fourth. Max Verstappen took fifth place, ahead of Charles Leclerc, Oscar Piastri, and Fernando Alonso. Nico Hulkenberg rounded out the top ten with another encouraging session for Haas.

Qualifying

George Russell led an all-Mercedes front row for the British Grand Prix, beating his team-mate Lewis Hamilton to pole by 0.171 seconds. The battle for pole came down to a duel between the two Mercedes drivers in a thrilling qualifying session. Hamilton initially snatched the provisional pole with a time of 1m25.990s, but Russell improved to 1m25.819s to secure his third Formula 1 pole.

Q1

Sergio Perez suffered a snap on the entry into Copse on his out-lap on soft tires after switching from intermediates. With limited grip on the still-wet asphalt, he understeered into the gravel and got stuck, causing a red flag and damaging his RB20. After the session resumed, Valtteri Bottas set the first lap on softs but could not improve due to a brief rain spurt. This also impacted Kevin Magnussen, who skidded across the gravel and couldn't improve his time, finishing 17th. Esteban Ocon also dropped out, citing the rain interference on his final push lap. Ultimately, Perez was eliminated, and Pierre Gasly, burdened by penalties for new power unit components, ended up at the bottom and will start from the pit lane.

Q2

The track continued to dry out, leading to high track evolution and an ever-changing order. Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc looked vulnerable towards the end of the session. Leclerc moved up to seventh, pushing Verstappen into the drop zone briefly. However, Verstappen recovered to sixth, knocking Logan Sargeant out of the top ten. Lance Stroll's last-ditch effort further pushed Leclerc into the bottom five, eliminating him in Q2 for the second time in the last 4 races. Yuki Tsunoda spent most of the session in the bottom five and couldn't escape, missing Norris' leading time by 0.7 seconds. Zhou Guanyu and Daniel Ricciardo were also knocked out, both trailing Tsunoda.

Q3

The final qualifying session saw George Russell leading an all-British top three after the opening runs, just 0.006 seconds ahead of Lando Norris, with Hamilton and Piastri close behind. Max Verstappen, hindered by floor damage from his off-track excursion in Copse in Q1, was unable to challenge the leaders. In the decisive moments, Hamilton set a time of 1m25.990s, but Russell clinched pole with a 1m25.819s lap and the assistance of a tow. Norris was overtaken by Hamilton in the final runs, placing him in the second row alongside Verstappen. Oscar Piastri secured fifth place, having been interrupted by traffic.

Nico Hulkenberg delivered another phenomenal lap, capitalizing on new upgrades to the Haas car to secure sixth place, out-qualifying Ferrari's Carlos Sainz and earning the praise of fans worldwide. Lance Stroll, Alex Albon, and Fernando Alonso rounded out the top ten in an encouraging result for both Williams and Aston Martin on home soil.

Race

The Sunday started with bad news for Pierre Gasly who had to retire his car after the formation lap due to a gearbox issue. Shortly after, with all cars lined up and the five lights out, the 2024 British Grand Prix got underway with Mercedes' George Russell leading from pole with a great start, closely followed by Hamilton, Norris, and Verstappen. Verstappen managed to get past Norris into P3 on the first lap, the McLaren MCL38 struggling to warm up its tires in the initial stages. The Mercedes pair, on the other hand, benefitted from the cooler tires and created a comfortable margin over the rest of the field. Alex Albon picked up damage on the first lap in a battle with Fernando Alonso, but managed to carry on.

On lap 9 of the race, the teams informed the drivers about forecasted rain around lap 16. The threat of precipitation was imminent with rain showers visible a couple of miles away from the Silverstone circuit. At this point the field had started to spread a bit, Russell led Hamilton by nearly 2 seconds, who was 2 seconds ahead of Verstappen himself. Verstappen meanwhile was busy with a growing papaya-colored speckle in his mirrors.

On Lap 15, Norris, who was starting to get his tires into the window, overtook Verstappen to reclaim 3rd place as the home crowd roared for an all-British top 3. A couple of laps later, his teammate Oscar Piastri would overtake Verstappen at the same corner, making it a Mercedes 1-2 McLaren 3-4. At this stage, the Red Bull wasn't showing exceptional pace, unable to make an impression on the Mercedes pair and losing positions to the McLarens. On lap 17, the umbrellas and raincoats went up in the grandstands, a sign of the approaching weather.

A mistake by Russel had brought his teammate into contention for the win, and on lap 18, Lewis Hamilton seized the opportunity and took the lead in the British Grand Prix. Russel attempted to regain the position but on the first corner of lap 19, both Mercedes ran wide taking the run-off and rejoining the track just in front of Norris. With rain pouring and the track getting damper, the battle for the win was now fought by 3, and within a couple of corners, Norris overtook George Russell to take second place. Crossing the half-race distance, the McLaren drivers managed to get the most out of their slick tires and overtook both Mercedes.

By lap 27, it was a McLaren 1-2 and Mercedes 3-4, when the battling Sainz and Verstappen dove into the pits for a set of intermediate tires. On the next lap, McLaren called in Norris and the Mercedes team pitted both their drivers for a double stack. Of the top 4, only Piastri was left out for an extra lap on the slick tires, which would prove costly as he emerged from his pitstop in P6 behind Verstappen.

On lap 34, seemingly out of nowhere, pole man George Russell was told to retire his car, Mercedes later explaining that it was due to a suspected water system failure. The pecking order was then Norris-Hamilton-Verstappen.

A few laps later, with all cars on the green-ring intermediate tires, the track starting to dry and the sun starting to shine, Hamilton and Verstappen pitted for slicks. Mercedes fitted a soft tire on Hamilton's car while Verstappen got a hard compound tire, which would be instrumental in the result of the race.

Hamilton and Verstappen had undercut Norris, who had to pit a lap later, losing time to his rivals on the degraded inters. On lap 40, Norris pitted for a set of soft tires, denying his teammate Piastris's approach of putting on medium tires. Norris would later attribute the result of his race to this decision. After a slow stop, Norris joined the track 1 second behind Lewis Hamilton and 6 and a half seconds ahead of Max Verstappen.

Lewis Hamilton controlled the pace for the remainder of the race, extending his lead over compatriot Norris to nearly 3 seconds. Meanwhile, Verstappen on the preferable hard compound tire was closing in on Norris rapidly. He was lapping seconds faster than the McLaren until inevitably, on lap 48, Verstappen passed Norris and set his sights ahead on the 7-time world champion.

The last half dozen laps brought the 164,000 British fans in attendance to the edge of their seats. Their hero was 2 seconds ahead on track, but he was on the same tires that did not fare well against Verstappen on Norris's MCL38. Hamilton was managing, but Verstappen was hunting. Seeing those two driver tags at the very top of the standings gave a glimpse of the infamous 2021 season. It was either man's victory, but Hamilton already had one hand on the golden trophy.

Lap 52/52. In David Croft's words "He is the man who raises the bar, who raises the stats, who takes things to stratospheric levels and he's only got three corners now. He can see the crowd standing and giving him that round of applause, he is ready to kickstart the celebrations. Eight times we've said it before, here's a ninth for you! Lewis Hamilton wins the British Grand Prix! What a victory! Hamilton is back!"

"This victory means so much to me," Hamilton exclaimed post-race. "I've been pushing every day since 2021, and to win at Silverstone again in what could be my last race here with Mercedes is incredibly special."

Lewis Hamilton crossed the finish line 1.5 seconds ahead of Max Verstappen to take his 104th career win in his last race at Silverstone for the team he has won 6 out of his 7 world championships with. He becomes the first driver to have won the most races at a singular track having taken his 9th victory at Silverstone this weekend. This is the story of how Lewis Hamilton made history at Silverstone.