WATCH: Lewis Hamilton raises the British flag to celebrate emotional victory with Mercedes in his final season at the team

Lewis Hamilton's drive during the 52-lap Silverstone race was an absolute masterclass.

WATCH: Lewis Hamilton raises the British flag to celebrate emotional victory with Mercedes in his final season at the team

Lewis Hamilton (via IMAGO, Screenshot via F1)

Lewis Hamilton finally scored his highly anticipated race victory in Formula 1 after a hiatus of 945 days. Mercedes’ struggling pace during the start of the 2024 season made the team lose a lot of hope. Regardless, the team has scored consecutive victories in the season in Austria and Britain. Hence, the 39-year-old was extremely emotional while celebrating his victory.

Lewis Hamilton broke into tears while celebrating, additionally, the Briton had multiple moments of self-doubt after not winning for so long. Triumphing in the home race before his move to Ferrari further made the event more special.

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Regardless, the 39-year-old produced a great drive around the Silverstone circuit and scored the race win. Hamilton waved the British flag after scoring the victory.

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Hamilton’s victory in front of the home crowd in Silverstone further added to the specialty of the win. He waved the flag from his W15 challenger while driving around the circuit in the victory lap. Additionally, the 39-year-old also took the flag to the podium and wore it during the celebrations.

Lewis Hamilton’s race engineer Bono claims the Briton took a lot of ‘baby steps’ before scoring the race win

The entire crew of Mercedes would be very delighted with Hamilton’s race-winning performance in Britain. Hamilton’s race engineer Peter “Bono” Bonnington who doesn’t speak to the public much broke his silence over the long-awaited victory. Bono noted that it had been a long time and that the two were working very hard to score the race win.

It’s been a long, long time, and he and I have been working hard trying to get back there.

Bono told Sky Sports F1.
Toto Wolff and Lewis Hamilton
Toto Wolff and Lewis Hamilton (Via Imago)

Hamilton’s race engineer pointed out that Hamilton took several baby steps building up to the race victory in Silverstone. However, Bono recalled that the Briton’s feedback regarding the W15 chassis wasn’t too great. Regardless, this feedback enabled the team to work on the chassis and develop it perfectly according to the needs of the seven-time world champion.

It's been baby steps, but it's taken a lot of them. The feedback he was giving me of where we were on the initial stint balance, it wasn't great, we knew where we needed to correct the car, and I think we put the car in a real good position for that final stint to allow him to push.
Bono added.

Mercedes will continue to showcase such improvements in pace down the 2024 season. Such performances could enable the seven-time world champion to end the season on a ‘high’ just like he wanted. However, things are not going to be all smooth sailing considering the level of competition in F1 this year.

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