A record-breaking reported 164,000 people braved the intermittent rain and wind to witness Hamilton claim his 104th career victory and ninth at Silverstone, a new record for domination by a driver at a single circuit, in a masterclass of tactical driving and wet-weather brilliance.
The seven-time champion hadn’t won a race since Saudi Arabia in 2021, the penultimate race of his failed title duel with Verstappen some 945 days and 56 rounds ago, and burst into tears as he took the chequered flag and received a British Union Jack from a trackside marshal.
“Thank you so much, guys,” he said over team radio as he held the flag aloft to a standing ovation in the grandstands. “It means a lot to me, this one.”
“This one means a lot to us all,” his engineer, Peter Bonnington, said.
It was Hamilton’s last home race appearance in Mercedes colours before he switches to Ferrari in 2025.
The home hero’s journey to the top step required him to out-race and out-strategise four other rivals in a five-car fight for victory that lasted until the very last lap.
Teammate George Russell started on pole and set about controlling the grand prix in the opening stint, but the arrival of rain on lap 25 broke open the race.
In slipper conditions Hamilton easily outclassed the sister Mercedes car to take the lead, but it was McLaren behind that really excelled in the drizzle.
Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri were running fourth and fifth as fleck of rain hit their visors, and suddenly their cars came alive. They made short work of Max Verstappen to move into third, and by lap 20 they were up into first and second, aided slightly by Hamilton and Russell sliding off track at the first turn.
But just as the papaya cars settled into a rhythm, a second band of heavier rain arrived to shake order again.
Verstappen was first to respond, pitting on lap 26. Norris, Hamilton and Russell. responded on the following tour to cover him, but McLaren blundered by leaving Piastri out on his now ageing dry-weather tyres. By the time he pitted on lap 28, Norris had almost caught back up to him from behind.
The Australian’s challenge for victory was finished on the spot.
Pole-getter Russell’s afternoon also came to a sudden close shortly afterwards, when a water system issue forced him into retirement.
Norris led Hamilton from Verstappen in a three-way battle for victory on a drying track, and the race was on to pick the right moment to switch back to slick tyres to make it to the end of the race.
Hamilton and Verstappen boxed first, on lap 37, Mercedes with soft tyres and Verstappen with hards.
It presented Norris with a difficult decision: to cover Hamilton with soft tyres that would struggle to make the distance or use a saved-up set of mediums to try to outlast Verstappen.
He lost bundles of time on his way into the pits, his ageing wet-weather tyres degrading on the dry track, and then he overshot his pit box for the lack of grip, costing him an additional 2.5 seconds.
As he rejoined the track, Hamilton powered past on his warmed-up tyres. The margin? 2.5 seconds.
His car wasn’t well-suited to the softs, and he struggled to make an impression on his compatriot. Worse, with Verstappen’s hards up to temperature, the Dutchman began bearing down on the top two targeting an unlikely victory.
By lap 48 Verstappen easily blasted through the McLaren to take second, leaving him 3.3 seconds to close in four laps to Hamilton.
But there was a sense of inevitability about the seven-time champion winning at home. Despite Verstappen setting his fastest lap of the race in pursuit, Hamilton beat his former title rival to the flag by 1.465 seconds.
“I think just it’s been incredibly mentally challenging, I think for everyone in the team” Hamilton said of his winless streak and Mercedes’s struggles for form since 2021.
“But I think just knowing how hard everyone’s continued to work, knowing how I’ve managed just to keep my head in it… honestly, it’s the most incredible honour to be standing on the top of the podium and hearing the national anthem.”
Verstappen lamented that Red Bull Racing didn’t have the pace early in the race, forcing him into a late comeback that fell short.
“Everything was running hot and I just struggled for grip,” he said.
“We just kept it on track, made the right calls from the slick to the inter and then from the inter back to the slick tyre, which just basically kept me in contention.
“On a poor afternoon in terms of performance, to be second - I’ll take that.”
Norris, however, was disconsolate to let another victory slip through his fingers with poor strategy, having comfortably led the race at half distance.
“We threw it away in the final stop,” he lamented. “But also I don’t think it was a lap [too late]; I think even if I boxed on the perfect lap, our decision to go on to the softs was the wrong one.
“Two calls from our side cost us everything today. So, especially here, it’s pretty disappointing.”
Oscar Piastri finished fourth ahead of a distance Carlos Sainz, the bright spot on a bad day for Ferrari that saw Charles Leclerc fail to score for the third time in four grands prix.
Nico Hülkenberg was an excellent sixth for Haas to bring the team within four points of RB in sixth on the title table.
Aston Martin returned to the points with Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso in seventh and eighth ahead of Thai driver Alex Albon and RB’s Yuki Tsunoda to complete the top 10.