2024 British GP

Lewis Wins a Thrilling British GP in Silverstone

The Team continues its momentum of recent weeks at its home race in Silverstone: Lewis scores the second win of the season for the brand with the three-pointed star

A week on from George's first win of the season at the Austrian Grand Prix, the Team travelled to our home race near the Brackley and Brixworth factories looking to continue the momentum of previous races - and we did.

After a thrilling British GP, Lewis not only scored his 104th Grand Prix victory, his first since Saudi Arabia 2021, but also the Team's second win in a week. It was also his ninth win at Silverstone, setting a new record for the most wins by a driver at a single circuit. He previously shared the record with Michael Schumacher.

George and Lewis started the Grand Prix from the front row on fresh Medium tyres. Only Guanyu Zhou, Daniel Ricciardo (both Soft) and Sergio Perez (Hard) did not start on the Medium tyre compound.

Our duo held their positions at the start, while behind them Max Verstappen improved to P3 and was hot on their heels. After three laps, Lewis managed to break the DRS to the Red Bull driver. At the same time, George and Lewis set a good pace at the front.

Meanwhile, the Team kept an eye on the weather radar, which predicted a very light rain shower for the end of the first third of the race and a heavier shower a little later.

As the rain increased, both Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri passed Verstappen. At the front, Lewis overtook George on lap 18 on an increasingly slippery track. Shortly afterwards, both drivers went wide at Turn 1 and Norris passed George, who was now P3 behind Lewis and Norris.

Our pace suffered in these difficult, increasingly wet conditions, compared to the McLarens so Norris also overtook Lewis and took the lead. His team-mate Oscar Piastri did the same and also passed both of our drivers.

On lap 39, Lewis came in for the decisive stop and switched from Intermediates to Soft tyres. Verstappen also came in at the same time, switching to the Hard tyres. Norris, on the other hand, stayed on the track and came in on the next lap. This allowed Lewis to take the lead and go into the final 13 laps of the race with a 2.5-second advantage over Norris. But Verstappen also set strong lap times on the Hard tyres and got closer to the leading duo.

Four laps before the end of the race, Verstappen passed Norris and was 3.3 seconds behind Lewis in P2. Verstappen's lap times on the Hard tyres were a few tenths faster per lap than Lewis', but it wasn't going to be enough for him to get close enough to attack. So Lewis crossed the finish line first, winning the British GP and becoming the sixth different race winner this season!

This makes Lewis the first driver in F1 history to win a Grand Prix in 16 different seasons. It was his 150th podium with Mercedes-AMG, his 12th consecutive podium at the British GP and his 15th podium at Silverstone.

From the Home of British Motor Racing, it's on to the Hungaroring in a fortnight's time, where the Hungarian Grand Prix (19-21 July) will be the first of two races before the start of the F1 Summer Shutdown.

George Russell

I’m absolutely gutted. About 10 laps before I had to retire, I could see temperature alarms on my steering wheel. We had a water system issue we were battling and unfortunately, it won out. Congratulations to Lewis and the team though. He drove a great race and it’s a fully deserved victory. We’ve both been pushing so hard to help the team develop the car and it’s great to see that paying off.

The car felt so good today. We knew it was going to be a long race with the weather conditions. When the rain first came down, we struggled a little. We were able to find our pace again though and it would have been an interesting battle to the end. Nevertheless, it’s been an amazing weekend for us as a team. We can be proud of what we’ve achieved and look forward to the final two races before the summer break with excitement.

Andrew Shovlin, Trackside Engineering Director

It was absolutely fantastic to see Lewis win today. The crowd here make it extra special, and it was an amazing drive. It’s barely believable that it's been so long since we last won a race with Lewis and now, we've just won two weekends in a row as a team.

It was a difficult race for George. We were monitoring a cooling system on his car from the early laps and unfortunately that got to a stage where we had to retire the car. He can hold his head up high though. He put together a fantastic lap to take pole position and showed that he had the pace to control the race in stint one.

The last few months have seen the whole team working flat out to improve the car. What we have achieved in a short space of time is incredible. We'll enjoy this moment as it's very special but with two races to go before the summer break, we'll keep pushing to bring performance as we continue to get our championship back on track.

2024 British GP Result