A Riveting Silverstone Grand Prix To Remember!

The Silverstone Grand Prix 2024 was nothing short of marvelous, filled with unexpected overtakes, challenging conditions and strategic endgame decisions. Without a doubt, THE most entertaining race of the season thus far and one of the best tracks to help teams assess their car’s performance, compared to the competition. It all began on Friday, the 5th of July...

The Silverstone Circuit, first raced in a motor race in 1947, is commonly recognized as one of the greatest tracks in the world. This may be due to it’s high speed nature, filled with challenging corners that even the most skilled racing drivers find difficult, or the unpredictable weather conditions for which Silverstone is famous. The circuit is 5.891km long with 3 DRS sections. It has the iconic Hamilton straight and historic corners like Copse, Abbey, Maggots and Beckets. It is also home to some very memorable F1 moments, such as when Nigel Mansell gave Ayrton Senna a lift on his car’s sidepod after Senna’s McLaren car ran out of fuel. Additionally the quote,  "THROUGH GOES HAMILTON! UNBELIEVABLE STUFF!” emerged here during a three way battle in the 2022 Silverstone GP, where Hamilton passed Leclerc and Perez before the Hamilton straight. 

On friday, the regular FP1 and FP2 sessions took place under the gloomy, grey skies with lingering rain. FP1 was chaotic, with Norris setting the fastest lap, followed by Stroll, Piastri, Verstappen and Russel. Four rookies hit the track in this session from Williams, Alpine and Redbull.  Unfortunately, Piastri suffered a hydraulic failure, and Tsunoda spun into the gravel after losing control of the rear of his car. Many fastest laps were interrupted due to impeding cars. Nevertheless, FP2 was a much cleaner session, with Norris again topping the timing sheets, followed by Piastri, Perez, Hülkenberg and Leclerc. A few moments where the cars exceeded track limits, noticeably Leclerc who drove off track through Maggots and Beckets, to take the safety road instead. McLaren looked very promising thus far and likely were favourites for qualifying. 

On Saturday, FP3 was taken on intermediate tyres, with many drivers struggling to control their cars. Gasly lost his rear and went into the gravel, along with Verstappen, who did a full 360 spin before regaining control on the track. Leclerc also had a minor slip as he went wide, and Bottas did a similar spin but managed to avoid the barrier. Mercedes shined through this session, with Russel topping the timing sheets, closely followed by Hamilton, Norris, Sainz and Verstappen. As it was predictable that rain would be present during the race and potentially qualifying, Mercedes and McLaren now looked favourites. 

Qualifying on Saturday was nothing short of interesting. In Q1, the track was quite slippery. Perez was a testament to the challenging conditions as he was first to lose control and drive into the gravel, not even on a fast lap. His qualifying ended in less than 3 minutes, causing a red flag to temporarily stop the session. Once it resumed, drivers rushed to put in their laps before the rain was going to start. Verstappen, also went into the gravel during his push lap but managed to safely rejoin the track, though it left him in a vulnerable position to get out qualified. At the end of Q1, Hamilton set the fastest lap, followed by Russel and the two Ferraris. Bottas had some great laps initially, but wasn't enough to get him through Q2, as he was in P15, outqualified by Zhou for the first time this season, followed by Magnussen, Ocon, Perez and Gasly. In Q2, the track dried up more and teams began to find more pace. Verstappen seemed to have collected damage in Q1, with his laps securing him nothing higher than P6. At the end of Q2, it was Norris, Russel and Alonso at the top. The big suprise was Leclerc getting eliminated from Q3, ahead of Sargeant, Tsunoda, Zhou and Ricciardo. In Q3, when the track was at its dryest, the Mercedes cars reigned supreme, with fastest laps getting exchanged by Russel and Hamilton. Russel managed to secure P1 in qualifying, followed by Hamilton, Norris, Verstappen and Piastri. A British top three in Silverstone, for the first time in history. 

The race took place on Sunday, at 3:00 PM local time. The skies were already looking quite cloudy, and rain was expected around lap 16/17. It was lights out and away they went. Russel got a great start and managed to keep Hamilton behind, who was at his rear. After the first corner, Norris attempted to put pressure on Hamilton but drifted too wide, allowing Verstappen to sail past Norris and into 3rd, a crucial move for him to get as close to the front as possible, before the rain started. Albon also came into contact with Hülkenberg and Alonso, causing him to lose a few positions to 12th. On lap 13, Leclerc managed to overtake Stroll and get himself to P7, right behind his teammate. On lap 15, Norris finds himself 5 tenths within DRS range of Verstappen and slingshotted past him on the straight, proving that the McLaren was a rocketship on the straights. 

On lap 17, the rain begins to properly fall on the track, making racecraft more important than ever. The Redbull was struggling immensely in these conditions and Piastri took advantage of that by quickly overtaking Verstappen on the straight. Russel also struggled as the track became more slippery. In just 1 lap, the gap between Hamilton and Russel reduced from three seconds to zero, as Hamilton charged past Russel to take the lead of the race. On lap 19, both Hamilton and Russel ran off the track, allowing Norris to close the gap between the leading cars. When they rejoined the track, Norris was right behind Russel and effortlessly past him by a late braking maneuver. Piastri also drove off the track but quickly rejoined, staying behind Norris. Soon after Norris overtook Russel, he tucked himself behind Hamiltons rear, and managed to blast past Hamilton, becoming the new race leader. Piastri quickly followed, overtaking both Mercedes’ and creating a McLaren 1-2.

Meanwhile, on lap 27, Verstappen was the first in top 10 to pit for intermediate tyres, briskly followed by Sainz. On the next lap, both Mercedes and McLaren faced a dilemna on whether to do a double pitstop, as both their drivers were at the front. However, only Mercedes opted for a double pitstop, while McLaren decided to pit only Norris, leaving Piastri struggling on the softs and forced to complete one more lap before pitting. McLaren's strategy blunder cost Piastri too much time by staying out an extra lap. After his pitstop, he dropped to P6 in front of Hülkenberg. Suddenly, on lap 34/52, Russel, in fourth place, was told to retire the car due to a detected water cooling system issue. Unfortunately, his race came to an end, the pole sitter unable to secure a podium in Silverstone. 

As the race progressed, the track began to dry, but it was up to the teams and drivers to decide the ideal time to change the tyres and how long to stay on the intermediate tyres to maximum undercut/overcut potential. Mercedes had a fresh pair of softs, Redbull had a fresh pair of hards, and McLaren had a fresh pair of mediums and softs. It was a tough decision to make for McLaren on which tyre Norris should take, but considering how he could potentially manage to keep Verstappen at bay while putting pressure on his tyres to chase Hamilton, the mediums seemed the most promising option. On lap 39, Hamilton and Verstappen both pitted to change their tyres. Hamilton opting for softs, and Verstappen for hards. A questionable tyre choice initially, but hards would prove to be a worthy tyre towards the ending laps. Norris decides to stay out one more lap, a costly mistake. To make matters worse, as Norris pitted on lap 40, he accidentally braked too late, making his pitstop even later than he could afford -- 4.5 seconds. By then, Hamilton was already 1.5 seconds quicker in the first sector alone. Before Norris could leave the pits, Hamilton zoomed past Norris, reclaiming P1 and leaving a gap of two seconds between the two brits. Norris had to settle for P2 and preserve his tyres to defend against a charging Verstappen. However, Norris was relentless and pushed his tyres to get as close to Hamilton as possible but failed, and Verstappen began closing in on Norris. On lap 48, Verstappen was within DRS range and passed Norris into P2, leaving Norris with P3. However, the race wasn’t done yet. Verstappen attempted to chase down Hamilton with 4 more laps to go, but was could not close the three-second gap, thanks to Hamilton’s excellent tyre management. Hamilton sailed freely in the last few laps and crossed the finish line to become a 9-TIME RACE WINNER AT SILVERSTONE! A jaw-dropping feat as he broke his previous record of most wins at a single circuit, previously tied by Schumacher. He also won the record for first driver to win a race for 17 seasons, the oldest driver to win a race, and the longest gap between his maiden win and latest win. After nearly 1000 days, it was a very emotional win for Hamilton, and the crowd’s cheers were simply beautiful to hear as he thanked Bono and the team. Every F1 fan missed the iconic phrase, “GET IN THERE LEWIS!”. I’m truly speechless. What. A. Win.

I loved how action-packed this race was, and the absolute fairytale ending with Hamilton sealing his 104th win at home in his final season with Mercedes after a winless drought. As someone who has been watching him for quite a while, I think this race proved to himself and everyone that the 8th WDC title is still possible, and when there’s a will, there's a way. With the summer break approaching, and in the last 12 races, there have been 6 different race winners. Hopefully, some other drivers will get a change to win this season, possibly Piastri... ;)