Two years ago today, Lewis Hamilton achieved what he feared might never happen again.
The now-Ferrari driver, then still at Mercedes, stood on the top step of the Silverstone podium on 7 July 2024 with tears streaming down his face, having won the British Grand Prix for a record ninth time.
It was his first victory in 945 days, stretching all the way back to the 2021 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix in Jeddah.
“I didn’t think it would ever happen again,” Hamilton said afterwards. “But I just tried to continue to believe and just keep chasing.”
It was a race that had everything. Pole-sitter George Russell led the early running, pulling clear of his team-mate as the lights went out.
But changeable British weather soon tore up the script, with rain arriving to turn a straightforward affair into a strategic thriller.
As the field scrambled onto intermediate tyres, the lead swapped hands between the two Mercedes cars and the McLaren pair of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri.
When the skies cleared, Hamilton made the decisive move, pitting for slick tyres one lap before Norris, who also suffered a slow stop. It was enough to hand Hamilton a lead he would not relinquish.
Russell’s afternoon ended in retirement with a water system failure, while Max Verstappen charged through to snatch second from Norris in the closing stages.
But none of that mattered to the capacity Silverstone crowd, who watched the seven-time F1 drivers’ champion cross the line first for the 104th time in his career.
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The statistics only added to the emotion. Hamilton became the first driver in Formula 1 history to win a grand prix after his 300th race start; this was his 344th.
His ninth British Grand Prix victory surpassed the previous benchmark of eight wins at a single event, a record he had previously shared with Michael Schumacher.
The Ferrari driver won the French Grand Prix eight times; Hamilton has also won the Hungarian Grand Prix on eight occasions.
“There have been some days since 2021 and here where I didn’t feel like I was good enough, or whether I was going to get back where I am today,” Hamilton reflected.
As it turned out, Silverstone 2024 would be one of his final acts in a Mercedes before his blockbuster move to Ferrari, save for his inherited win at Spa-Francorchamps a few weeks later.
But on that sunlit, rain-soaked, unforgettable afternoon, none of that was on his mind. Only the overwhelming relief that, after 945 days, Lewis Hamilton was a winner once more.