Lewis Hamilton had a simple answer when he was asked about just why he was so successful in the British Grand Prix at Silverstone. “Because I own it!” he said with a smile. And he’s right.
He owned the iconic UK circuit like nobody else this weekend, as he powered his way to victory for the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport Team in front of Sunday’s sell-out crowd of 139,000 spectators.
The dominant win marked not only the 57th of his career, but it was also his fifth at Silverstone and fourth consecutive home win. Starting on pole, Lewis was in the lead for every single lap of the race before taking the chequered flag, setting the fastest lap in the process for good measure.
Lewis said: “This was a perfect weekend for us as a team. I was up front, got a very good start and after that I was really able to manage the gap between myself and Kimi Raikkonen and just bit by bit, extend my lead.
“After the race I went crowd-surfing with everyone. The support has been immense this weekend. The fans, the amount of flags, the amount of support, the energy; it was all tremendous. I started racing here in 2002; I am good at this track but the energy I get from the fans – I don’t think any other driver gets that. It lifts you up.
“This is the best I’ve driven, ever. You can’t hear the crowd when you are in the car but you can see them. I saw them cheering every single lap, every single corner. I watched a little bit of the race during the race! Once I got my gap I was able to watch a bit of it on the big screens.”
Lewis’ success was made even sweeter as title rival Sebastian Vettel suffered a puncture on the penultimate lap of the race and finished down the order in seventh place; cutting the German’s advantage in the championship to just one point as the season reached the halfway stage.
Meanwhile, Valtteri Bottas made it an awesome 1-2 for the Silver Arrows after he drove a fantastic race to go from ninth on the grid to finish second. It was a truly impressive result for the Finnish ace, who also benefitted from Raikkonen’s late puncture.
Valtteri added: “I’m really happy for today. It was definitely not easy, the whole race, to start from P9 and there were many cars not easy to get through, but the team did an absolutely perfect strategy and I just got my head down, and kept going.
“Also, with the puncture with Kimi, we got a bit lucky but a perfect weekend for us and well done to Lewis. It’s just amazing what we’ve done today. The car was so good to drive. It was really quick and the team did a perfect strategy for both of us and 1-2 is perfect.”
With Lewis in second position in the championship by a single point, and Valtteri close behind in third, the race for the championship title is well and truly on as the season crosses its half way marker. Next up is the full-throttle Hungarian Grand Prix on the 30th July; where Lewis holds the outright record for the most wins [five] of any driver in F1.
Full results from the 2017 British Grand Prix are available, here.
Credit:Monster