#OTD in 2008, Lewis Hamilton takes his maiden Silverstone victory in a dominant fashion
Follow Us
Lewis Hamilton celebrating the first of his eight victories at Silverstone, back in 2008.
Lewis Hamilton is known as a master at Silverstone. The Briton has taken victory a record 8 times at his home Grand Prix, including it winning 4 times consecutively from 2014 to 2017 until his streak was broken in 2018 by Sebastian Vettel. Hamilton then won all three of the next Silverstone races from 2019 to 2021, but his streak has again been broken by a Ferrari, this time, Carlos Sainz.
Lewis Hamilton did at one stage look in contention for a victory in Silverstone this time around, as he was chasing down Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc on fresher tires. He might even have been ahead of at least Carlos Sainz if Mercedes had not made a slow pit-stop time of 4.3 seconds. After the safety car came out, Carlos Sainz pulled away after overtaking his teammate, and Hamilton, Leclerc, and Sergio Perez put on a racing display for the ages, with Perez and Hamilton finishing 2nd and 3rd respectively.
His podium finish at Silverstone meant that he also attained an unwanted record. For the first time in his career, Hamilton has gone winless for 11 races. The most he had gone winless for before was 10 races. Nevertheless, Silverstone was certainly a positive weekend for Lewis Hamilton, who showed very strong pace during the race and even took the fastest lap.
Also Read: Lewis Hamilton sets a personal negative record after P3 in Silverstone
An excellent showing from Hamilton
Lewis Hamilton had taken his maiden Silverstone victory in 2008 in wet conditions. Starting fourth, with his teammate Heikki Kovalainen on pole, Hamilton breezed past Mark Webber and Kimi Raikkonen and overtook his teammate by lap 5 to come into the lead of the race. Later on during the race, McLaren hit the correct gamble.
McLaren predicted correctly that the rain that had plagued the track before the start of the race would return, and so gave Hamilton intermediate tires. In contrast, Ferrari thought that the track would continue to dry up, and did not make such a decision for Kimi Raikkonen. Raikkonen was unable to find any grip on the track and fell behind dramatically from Hamilton, when earlier he had showed very good pace.
By the end of the race, Hamilton had lapped everyone on the track except for the front three, and even in their case, he was ahead by more than a minute. His third victory of the season also helped Hamilton tie up the lead of the Drivers’ Championship, as he went level on points with Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen, a battle he would come out on top of in the final race of the season.
Stay Updated!
Aniket Tripathi
(1002 Articles Published)