After a 686-day wait, Lewis Hamilton is back on the top step of the podium, and for the first time ever, he has done so as a Ferrari driver. Having stayed on the pace all weekend, Hamilton was a threat from the off. Starting second, the seven-time world champion opted for an early stop on lap 11, a call that dictated the strategies of those behind him.
Hamilton was consistently on the pace throughout and particularly rapid during his middle stint on the medium tyres. Aided in part by a virtual safety car on lap 49, Hamilton ran untroubled for the last 26 laps and came home to take an emotional 106th grand prix win, nearly 20 seconds clear of the field. Visibly emotional, Hamilton openly expressed his gratitude to his team and voiced his renewed sense of confidence.
Behind him, George Russell had a productive afternoon. After leading for much of the opening stint, Russell soon found himself under pressure from his teammate Kimi Antonelli. The championship leader caught and passed Russell on lap 61, only to coast to a halt with just three laps to go. Russell inherited second place and, with Antonelli’s DNF, has cut the championship deficit to 50 points.
After struggling with rear instability during the opening exchanges, Lando Norris recovered well to influence Mercedes’ strategy calls. Another beneficiary of Antonelli’s late retirement, Norris secured his second podium of the season, a vital result given his and the team’s lacklustre weekend last time out in Monaco.
A bold pass around the outside of Oscar Piastri at turn three on lap one was about as exciting as Max Verstappen’s afternoon got. The four-time world champion complained of instability and suffered a delay at his first stop. Verstappen ran largely trouble-free from that point on and, once the late race drama had subsided, found himself in a fortuitous fourth place.
Behind him, Oscar Piastri had a quiet run to fifth, ahead of Isack Hadjar, who was able to recover from a very poor start to secure some much-needed points for both himself and Red Bull. Pierre Gasly gathered yet more momentum with a fine seventh-place finish. His teammate, Franco Colapinto, was ordered to let Gasly pass on lap 20 and held on for eighth to make it a fruitful day for Alpine as the team draws further away from RB in the constructors’ standings.
Liam Lawson’s strong qualifying pace carried over into the race itself as he bagged his fifth points finish of the season ahead of his teammate Arvid Lindblad, who made it back-to-back double points finishes for RB.
Gabriel Bortoleto suffered a poor start but was able to recover to 11th ahead of Carlos Sainz and Sergio Perez. After trailing his teammate all weekend and suffering an ignominious crash in qualifying, Charles Leclerc was a man on the move on Sunday. The Ferrari driver made up three places off the start, and while he was never in contention for the podium, he looked set to score valuable points. That was until his power steering failed on lap 63. A sad end to a disappointing weekend.
Ollie Bearman and Alex Albon fell victim to mechanical issues – though the latter rejoined the race and was classified as having finished 11 laps down - Fernando Alonso, Nico Hulkenberg, Valtteri Bottas and Lance Stroll were the remaining retirees from the race.
For months now, Hamilton’s form has been that of a man rejuvenated and having made a bit of history by becoming the first driver to win a grand prix in his forties since Nigel Mansell in 1994, is now showing all the signs of a man ready to take on the best the current crop of F1 talent has to offer and remind everyone of his towering stature in global motorsport.
