Lewis Hamilton is one of the greatest F1 drivers of all time, and arguably the best to ever come out of Great Britain. Today, the main straight at the iconic Silverstone circuit is named after Hamilton because of his incredible achievements there. However, there was a time when he failed to win a home race in F1 for six long years!
2014 was the first time Hamilton put up a Title charge since making the move to Mercedes. They were arguably the best team back then, and Hamilton finally believed that his time to win in Silverstone was here again. Unfortunately, his weekend went off to a horrible start because of a disastrous qualifying session. The Briton qualified in P6 for the race which would make things very difficult for him.
To make matters worse for Hamilton, his teammate and rival Nico Rosberg took the pole position. Hamilton’s poor finish in qualifying was down to him abandoning his final push lap, since he felt that the track was not dry enough for him to improve on his previous time.
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Lewis Hamilton made a miraculous comeback to win the 2014 British GP
Hamilton’s first-ever win in Silverstone came at the 2008 British GP when he finished ahead of Nick Heidfeld and Rubens Barrichello to stand on the top step of his home podium. Since then, however, he failed to replicate the result and was in desperate search of a win in Silverstone. His qualifying in sixth did not make things better for him, but Hamilton fans were in for a treat that afternoon.
Unfortunately for Rosberg, he had to retire from the race due to gearbox issues. On top of that, Hamilton drove a brilliant comeback drive to move up to P1 and he did it in a dominant fashion. Ahead of the final lap of the race, he was 29 seconds ahead of Williams’ Valtteri Bottas. Everyone in Silverstone witnessed a miraculous comeback that day, and Sky Sports commentator David Croft described it in beautiful fashion.
“Hamilton 24 hours after his world fell apart!” Croft said during broadcast. “He might be about to get the best of British luck that he could’ve every wanted at Silverstone.”
Hamilton won the British GP six more times in the coming years, which made him the most successful driver in the circuit’s history. This is why the organizers decided to honor him by naming the main straight as ‘Sir Lewis Hamilton straight’.
