Lewis Hamilton stood tall in front of his home fans last weekend by winning the British GP for the ninth time. However, this victory didn’t come easy for him. Max Verstappen in his Red Bull was hot on his toes. Talking about the same, Lewis’ father Anthony Hamilton sounded confident, stating that Verstappen would never outperform his son in Silverstone.
Verstappen closed the gap to Lewis to within two seconds in the closing stages of the race. But the advantage the latter had was big enough to help him get over the line.
Anthony was not worried in those final few laps and was confident about Lewis winning his first race since the 2021 Saudi Arabian GP.
After the British GP, he said, “Look, there’s no way Lewis is ever going to allow Max to win the British GP with 2/3 seconds in hand on him.” So no, no surprise.”
#BritishGP | Anthony Hamilton’s post race interview with the BBC:
“Look, there’s no way Lewis is ever gonna allow Max to win the British Grand Prix with 2/3 seconds in hand on him. So no, no surprise.”
“I was on the grid taking some photos of Lewis as the last time we’ll sit… pic.twitter.com/SaKhpXRmSs
— deni (@fiagirly) July 12, 2024
Lewis and Verstappen have had some heated battles in Silverstone in the past, but they have never dueled to the finish line.
In 2020, Lewis was over 30 seconds ahead of the Dutch driver in the final when his tires gave out and Verstappen managed to get within two seconds of him in the end, but the effort went in vain as Lewis finished P1.
More famously, they clashed in Silverstone during their 2021 Championship battle and this time, it ended with Verstappen suffering a 51G impact on the barrier in Copse.
2024 saw a much cleaner race, arguably because Verstappen was too far behind to contemplate a possible move. But for the Hamiltons, it was a perfect home Grand Prix.
Hamilton Sr. on the perfect ending for Lewis in Silverstone
Lewis leaves Mercedes at the end of the season to embark on his Ferrari journey. But the last few years at the Brackley-based team, were not ideal for him.
From 2022 onwards, the team entered a slump which it is getting out of now, presumably. Lewis, however, had to endure two long winless years. As such, his father was happy with how the 39-year-old drove in his final home race with the team that helped him win six World Titles.
“I was on the grid taking some photos of Lewis as the last time we’ll sit in the Mercedes car on the grid and this is fitting to the end of our year with them.”
The win in Britain kickstarts Mercedes’ path to resurgence, and before leaving the team, Hamilton will be hoping to get a few more wins under his belt.
