Ponchos, umbrellas, and wellies at the ready as some typical British summer weather spiced up round 12 of the 2024 season. A historic British 1-2-3 in Saturday’s qualifying was followed up by a home victory, with a record-breaking ninth triumph at Silverstone for Lewis Hamilton stealing all the headlines. Find out who else mastered the tricky conditions on race day:
Top of the class:
Lewis Hamilton – Qualifying: 2nd | Race: 1st
There were 56 very long races between Lewis’ last victory and his latest one, but #104 was the most emotional win we’ve seen him in a long time.
Having qualified P2, just under two-tenths of a second off George Russell, Hamilton had to wait until lap 18 to take the lead along the Hanger Straight. However, it wouldn’t last long as a cautious trip through Abbey on lap 20 let Lando Norris through, with the other McLaren of Piastri getting past on the same lap.
Despite early struggles as the track got wetter, Lewis crucially kept on the back of Piastri and had the luxury of being the first car in the Mercedes double stack. He still had a 3.5-second gap to close down as the track dried out before making the switch to soft tyres on lap 39.
It wasn’t the ideal tyre to go on, but with his experience of tyre management, Lewis was able to set blistering pace to undercut Lando and retake the lead, whilst also holding him and then later Verstappen off.
It seemed fitting for Lewis to take the chequered flag along the straight named after him. His first victory since Saudi Arabia 2021 was met with crowd jubilation and emotional embraces with the team and his dad.
Victory number nine also secures the record for the most wins at a single track, and with further updates and another one of his favourite tracks coming up in Budapest, he could taste victory lane again very soon.
Nico Hülkenberg – Qualifying: 6th | Race: 6th
Apart from a dodgy opening lap, it was another stellar weekend for the German as he took a second consecutive P6 finish and another healthy haul of points for both Championships.
Whilst he snuck through in P15 during Q1, Hülkenberg comfortably progressed in Q2 and put in a solid lap in Q3 to secure a spot on the third row, ahead of the Ferraris and just a tenth off McLaren’s Oscar Piastri.
His start to the race was pretty sluggish as he dropped to ninth, surviving running wide at Village before settling in. Nico kept in close range of Leclerc and Stroll in front and was able to make a crucial pass on the Canadian to take P7.
From there, Haas made some solid strategy calls which meant Nico was running 6th after George Russell’s retirement, though the final stint of the soft tyres meant Stroll closed a 4-second gap to just eight tenths at the finish.
Nevertheless, Nico equalled his best result of the season to add another eight points to his tally, which moves him up to 11th in the standings and just two points from the top 10. It’s a clear indication of the progress in updates and leadership of Ayao Komatsu as in the last two races, the team have scored more points than all of 2023 combined.
Max Verstappen – Qualifying: 4th | Race: 2nd
The Dutchman is clearly making the difference in the team, showing what a great driver can do with a good car as he finished just 1.5 seconds off victory in arguably the third-fastest car at Silverstone.
A bouncy trip through the gravel at Copse in Q1 caused some significant floor damage, which he had to carry through the rest of qualifying. He may have had a shot of pole without this but based on Sunday’s race pace, row 2 was an excellent achievement.
Max took P3 on the first lap from Lando, but sunk back to fifth in the closing stages of the opening stint, and had to be mindful of Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz behind. Red Bull’s strategy lead Hannah Schmitz came through with a tactical masterstroke, being the first of the front-runners to pit got Verstappen ahead of Russell and Piastri to be running third.
In the final stint, electing to fit the hard tyres meant Max was able to get by Lando with four laps to go, and he only just ran out of laps to challenge for the victory. Despite this, another healthy haul of 18 points extends his Championship lead to 84 points.
Honourable mentions go to the Williams pair of Alexander Albon and Logan Sargeant. At Albon’s de facto home race, he made it into Q3 and picked off Yuki Tsunoda in the closing stages of the race to take home two points with a P9 finished, whilst Logan scored his best qualifying and race result of the season with P12 and P11 respectively, just nine seconds away from his first top 10 of 2024.
The struggle bus:
Sergio Pérez – Qualifying: 19th (started from pit lane) | Race: 17th
Checo is having a torrid time of late, with no podiums since the Miami Sprint and just 15 points in the previous five races. Unfortunately, things didn’t get any better at Silverstone.
Sergio spun into the gravel at Copse during Q1 as the track began to dry out following morning rain, his RB20 got beached and that was the end of his session. His position was precarious as he was only 14th at the time, so as the track dried out, he tumbled down the order to the back row of the grid.
With nothing to lose, the team replaced numerous engine components, which led to a pit lane start. Limited progress was made as the Mexican ran 14th before his race was sacrificed to an early stop for intermediate tyres when the first rain shower hit.
The gamble was too early as the track dried out, Pérez made a further three stops to make it to the end of the race and was lapped twice on his way to a lowly 17th when the chequered flag was flown.
There was little he could do when the strategy fell apart, but ultimately the team wouldn’t have made the gamble if he wasn’t running out of position.
Charles Leclerc – Qualifying: 11th | Race: 14th
Another driver who has had a triple header to forget is Charles. He didn’t look entirely comfortable all weekend now he’s back in the pre-upgrade spec of his SF-24 and it showed.
A second Q2 exit in four races meant it was an uphill battle for a strong result on Sunday. It started well enough as the Monégasque was running P8 in the early stages, and he got by Lance Stroll for 7th on lap 13.
Running five seconds off teammate Carlos Sainz, Ferrari elected to pit Charles for inters when the rain hit on lap 18. It was the wrong call, as Pérez and Leclerc found out. The Monégasque would come home P14 and one lap down on the winner.
In spite of the struggles, Charles still finds himself P3 in the Championship and will be looking to bounce back at the next round after a much-needed break.
McLaren:
Lando Norris – Qualifying: 3rd | Race: 3rd
Oscar Piastri – Qualifying: 5th | Race: 4th
It seems strange to put a team that took 27 points from the race on this list, but the Papaya team really ought to have finished 1-2 had it not been for some pretty pedestrian calls on strategy.
In spite of losing a place on the opening lap, Lando eased back past Verstappen along the Hangar Straight on lap 15. Five laps later it was a McLaren 1-2 with the British driver in the lead as the Mercedes in front struggled with the rain coming down.
Despite looking comfortable in the conditions, the pair didn’t capitalise on this as they only extended the lead to around 2 seconds. The first major error then came as the team only elected to pit Norris on lap 28.
Lando kept hold of the lead, but the extra lap meant Piastri dropped 20 seconds, which saw him slip from 2nd to 6th. The team then saw Lewis undercut them by stopping 1 lap earlier on lap 39. Then as Lando came in he went long in the pit box and was fitted with the soft tyres he requested.
The soft, as Lando would find out, was not the best call to close out the final 12 laps of the race. He came out behind Lewis with the 4.5-second stop and then faded to 3rd on lap 48 with Max breezing back past on the Hangar Straight.
Piastri recovered to finish fourth, 12 seconds off the race winner. It’s a case of what could have been, had McLaren elected to double stack in the first stop, Oscar would have lost far less time waiting than doing the extra lap.
Still, silver clouds and all that, McLaren are now just 7 points behind Ferrari in the Team’s Championship and on current form, they should close that down by the summer break.
The dishonourable mention goes to Alpine. With Pierre Gasly consigned to starting back at Stowe with his engine-enforced fifty-place grid penalty, it was an uphill battle anyway. He didn’t even get to start the race as he encountered a gearbox issue on the formation lap. On the other side, teammate Esteban Ocon was knocked out in Q1 and was victim to the early stop for inters, finishing two laps down in P16.
The paddock can enjoy a well-earned rest before round 13, with the Hungarian Grand Prix taking place on the weekend of 20th & 21st July. Will either Pérez or Piastri take their first win of the season, or will it be business as usual at the front? Check in a few weeks to find out.
