07/07/2024
NEWS STORY
Lewis Hamilton won the 75th edition of the British Grand Prix. The seven time world champion thus ends a barren spell that lasted 945 days, since the 2021 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.
He now has 104 Formula 1 wins to his name, nine of them in this race, thus topping the list of drivers with the most wins at one particular Grand Prix. For his Mercedes team it is win number 127, its second in a row, the first time the team has managed that in almost three years, as the last time it happened was in 2021, when the Toto Wolff-led team won in Brazil and then at the aforementioned next round in Saudi Arabia.
Joining Hamilton on the podium were second placed Max Verstappen (Red Bull Racing) and in third, Lando Norris (McLaren). All three men wore a special edition of the classic Pirelli podium cap, specially made in tweed for the Silverstone round.
For Pirelli, this was a very colourful Grand Prix, a four colour one to be precise, as four tyre compounds with their distinctive colour bands were brought into play - red for the Soft, yellow for the Medium, white for the Hard and green for the Intermediate and all four did in fact play an important role in a race where the track switched from dry to wet and back again and with temperatures that varied by around ten degrees depending on what the weather was doing.
The first part featured the Medium, used by 17 drivers on the grid, the exceptions being Ocon and Zhou, who opted for the Soft while, starting from pitlane, Perez went with the Hard. The C2 worked well, because the drivers were able to push even when carrying a full fuel load, while it also enabled them to manage the tricky conditions when the rain started to fall. Furthermore, the Medium ensured greater flexibility as to when to make the first pit stop, given that the threat of rain had made itself felt even before the start.
Then it was the turn of the Intermediate to take centre stage, when the crossover point arrived. Leclerc and Perez had chosen to switch to this tyre early and now found themselves with a set of worn tyres just when the track conditions were most suited to them and they had to come in for a second set. In fact, there was never as much water on track as there had been yesterday in FP3 and that meant this type of tyre was obviously going to wear much more quickly as the track had then dried out. The final part saw all three dry weather compounds compete on equal terms and it was interesting to observe how, especially among the leaders, the various car-driver packages were comfortable with different compounds: Hamilton took the win for Mercedes with the Soft, Verstappen and his Red Bull was quickest on the Hard, while Piastri demonstrated that the Medium could be very competitive on the McLaren.
Mario Isola: "We witnessed a very exciting Grand Prix at the end of a very busy weekend, which featured a great show both on the track and in the grandstands. It was a testing weekend for us because we put almost our entire range of tyres to the test in different conditions on one of the toughest tracks of the entire championship calendar.
"Right from Friday it was evident that all three dry weather compounds could play an important role in this race and that was confirmed today. In terms of strategy, the pre-race predictions were more or less respected. Leaving aside the rain, the length of the first stint on the Mediums and the performance of the Hard for those like Verstappen and Sainz who used them in the final stint, demonstrated how a C2/C1 combination could be very competitive. Obviously, the C3 suffered a bit more, partly because it was used in push mode towards the end of the race on a track that was still pretty green because of all the rain this weekend."
Check out our Sunday gallery from Silverstone here.