Lewis proves he's the best of British

LEWIS Hamilton claimed his first win in 945 days and took a record-extending ninth British Grand Prix victory on a wet, wild and emotional afternoon at Silverstone.

- PHILIP DUNCAN

It looked as though Lando Norris would secure his maiden success on home soil but he was left exposed by his flatfooted McLaren team in the changeable conditions.

As the Northamptonshire track dried out following a splurge of rain, Hamilton, trailing Norris by two seconds, peeled into the pit-lane to switch from intermediate tyres to the soft rubber.

Norris was critically left out one lap longer and when he emerged from the pits - after a sluggish 4.5 sec pit-stop - fellow Briton Hamilton had taken the lead to huge roars from the 164,000 sell-out crowd.

Hamilton rolled back the years over the remaining dozen laps to take his first victory since the penultimate round of the 2021 campaign in Saudi Arabia.

Max Verstappen finished second with Norris third as polesitter George Russell retired following a water system failure on his Mercedes.