Formula 1 Focus: Hamilton returns to winning ways in a Silverstone classic

Whisper it quietly, but this is turning into quite the season. 

Not even the most optimistic of fans would have expected that to be the case at the start of the campaign, but it's gotten better and better as Red Bull have gradually been caught by their opponents, and the British Grand Prix was its finest hour yet. 

Five different drivers looked to be in with a real chance of winning over the course of the race, and Lewis Hamilton being the one to prevail - tasting victory for the first time in almost three years - gave it the fairytale ending that it deserved. 

Here are my main takeaways from Silverstone.

Hammer Time isn't over yet

"There's definitely been days between 2021 and here where I didn't feel like I was good enough or was going to get back to where I am today," said Hamilton after finally winning again, and he wasn't the only one who felt that way. 

Many have wondered over the past few months whether the 39-year-old is past his best with George Russell beginning to take charge in their inter-team battle at Mercedes and whether Ferrari have made a mistake bringing him in for Carlos Sainz next season, but on home turf, the seven-time World Champion showed that he's still got it.

As soon as rain made the conditions tricky, he began to show his class as he caught and passed Russell to take the lead, and he didn't put a foot wrong when defending it in the closing stages, staying comfortably ahead of Lando Norris while keeping enough life in his tyres to ensure he'd be able to hold off a charging Max Verstappen at the very end. 

He took charge of his own strategy too and made all the right calls, putting on new tyres at the perfect time each time he came into the pits. To keep such a cool head is seriously impressive given the chaotic conditions and the pressure that he would have felt to finally end the longest win-drought of his career. 

After crossing the line to do so, he was hugely emotional, unable to hold back the tears for a good few minutes. That shows just how much this sport still means to him, and how hungry and motivated he'll be when he heads to Ferrari at the end of the season.

He may be nearing 40, but it's clearer than ever that Hamilton's hunt for a record-breaking ninth world championship is far from over. 

McLaren show their inexperience 

McLaren deserve huge credit for what they've done this season with their car becoming one of, if not the, best on the grid and Norris consistently being the biggest threat to Verstappen. However, at their home grand prix, both the team and their drivers showed that fighting at the very front is still something fairly new to them.

They were briefly in dreamland with Norris and Oscar Piastri making the most of having the fastest car on track to run in first and second, but things began to unravel when they opted to keep Piastri out for an extra lap as the rain began to fall rather than bringing the pair in together. That caused the Aussie to drop down to sixth.

Norris was still very much the favourite to win the race at that point but the team then kept him out for a lap too many when the track dried up again and he fell behind Hamilton as a result. After that, the team asked him which compound he wanted to switch to and he chose softs rather than mediums, which was a huge mistake when you look at how fast Piastri was in the closing stages on the latter compound. 

With how long he's been on the grid, the Brit maybe should have known better, but the team also never should have made it his choice in the first place. They had access to far more information than him and didn't have the 'slight' distraction of driving a car at 180mph on a damp track. 

They can just about afford such mishaps this season given both titles are already out of reach, but things will have to improve if they're to challenge Red Bull and Verstappen for the championships in 2025.

The Incredible Hulk

If you were to ask me right now to pick my driver of the season, the first to come to mind would obviously be Verstappen and Norris, but the other one I'd consider would be Nico Hulkenberg, who has genuinely blown my mind on a number of occasions.

He was at his usual best in qualifying at Silverstone, dragging his Haas into sixth place when teammate Kevin Magnussen couldn't even get it out of Q1 - although that was partly to do with the changing conditions - and the German then stayed where he started for the entirety of the race without too much trouble, comfortably holding off the Aston Martins. 

It was Hulkenberg's second sixth-placed finish in a row and took him up to 11th in the standings, ahead of any driver in comparable machinery and just a point behind the Aston of Lance Stroll. In terms of both outright pace and consistency, few on the grid are driving better than him right now.

That's an exciting thought for Audi, who have already signed him up to be one of their drivers when they take over Sauber in 2026, and while they want Sainz to be his teammate, they won't be stressed if the Spaniard opts to go elsewhere given Hulkenberg looks good enough to lead their F1 project himself. 

He may be 36, but that doesn't mean he'll be gone or even past his best when that project begins to reap the rewards Audi are expecting - just look at the age of the winner at Silverstone. Right now, it feels like there's still very much hope of him finally getting the podium he's waited longer than any other driver in the history of the sport for.