Emotional Lewis Hamilton ends win drought with record ninth British victory

The Mercedes driver's last win before Silverstone was in Saudi Arabia on Dec. 5, 2021, and Sunday was a record-extending 104th of his career.

Red Bull's triple world champion Max Verstappen finished 1.4 seconds behind, extending his overall lead, and McLaren's Lando Norris was third. Mercedes' pole-sitter George Russell retired with a suspected water system issue.

"Get in there Lewis, you are the man. You are the man. Mate, I have been waiting for this," yelled Hamilton's race engineer Peter Bonnington, who joined the driver on the podium, over the team radio.

"Thank you so much guys," sobbed Hamilton in reply, his voice faltering as he choked back the flow of tears inside the helmet.

"It means a lot. Big thank you to all the fans here."

Sunday was a record-extending 104th of Hamilton's career and set a new string of records - not least the first F1 driver to win a race in 16 different seasons and first to win nine at the same circuit.

He is also the first driver to win a race after reaching the rare milestone of 300 starts. Sunday's was the 344th race of Hamilton's F1 career that started with McLaren in 2007.

"I'm still crying," the Briton told 2009 champion and compatriot Jenson Button, doing the public post-race interviews, with the flag draped around his shoulders after stepping out of the car and hugging his father in a tight embrace.

"This is my last race here with this team so I wanted to win this so much for them because I love them and I appreciate them so much and all the hard work they’ve been putting in over the years," added the Ferrari-bound driver.

McLaren's Oscar Piastri finished fourth with Ferrari's Carlos Sainz fifth

Nico Hulkenberg was sixth for Haas with the Aston Martins of Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso eighth. Alex Albon took two points for Williams and Yuki Tsunoda was 10th for the Red Bull-owned RB team.