Hamilton takes record sixth British GP win

Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton celebrates with the trophy after winning the race, Formula One F1, British Grand Prix, Silverstone Circuit, Silverstone, Britain, 14 July – Reuters

SILVERSTONE, England (Reuters): Formula One champion Lewis Hamilton hailed his home fans after celebrating a record sixth British Grand Prix win yesterday and stretching his lead over luckless Mercedes team mate Valtteri Bottas to 39 points.

Bottas, on pole position, finished a distant second after a safety car period turned the race decisively in Hamilton’s favour by handing the home favourite a free pit stop in a thrilling race.

It was Hamilton’s seventh win in 10 races this season and 80th of his career.

The five-times world champion, now on 223 points to Bottas’s 184, also banged in a late fastest lap, on a set of tyres that had already done 30 laps, to secure an extra point. “Ah, what a day! I love you Silverstone,” Hamilton exclaimed over the radio after rapper Stormzy had waved the chequered flag, with Bottas 24.9 seconds behind.

Ferrari’s Monegasque Charles Leclerc was third after team mate Sebastian Vettel rammed into the back of Red Bull’s young charger Max Verstappen.

Vettel, who had been third but finished 16th, had to pit for a new front wing and collected a 10-second time penalty for causing the collision.

Verstappen ended up fifth and behind his French team mate Pierre Gasly.

Victory lifted Hamilton clear of Frenchman Alain Prost and the late Jim Clark, who both won five times in Britain, and the champion pulled over to collect a Union Jack from a marshal on his cool-down lap.

“I can’t tell you how proud I am to be here today,” declared Hamilton, interviewed by 2009 champion Jenson Button after parking up.

“So many British flags out there and I could see them lap after lap. Every year I’ve been coming I’ve seen it and noticed it and appreciated it. You’d think you’d get used to something like that but I tell you, it feels like the first time.”

Spaniard Carlos Sainz was sixth for McLaren, ahead of Renault’s Australian Daniel Ricciardo and Alfa Romeo’s Kimi Raikkonen.

Russian Daniil Kvyat was ninth for Toro Rosso and Nico Hulkenberg took the final point for Renault on a good day for the French manufacturer.