When Lewis Hamilton won a record-setting Formula One race on three wheels

The Mercedes driving legend won the race for the seventh time in his career that year, making him the driver with the most home wins in the history of the sport.

Lewis Hamilton in a file photo. (Image: Twitter/@F1)
By Nilavro Ghosh | May 11, 2023 | 3 Min Read follow icon Follow Us

The 2020 British Grand Prix proved to be a historic milestone not just in the career of Lewis Hamilton, but also in Formula One as a whole. The Mercedes driving legend won the race for the seventh time in his career that year, making him the driver with the most home wins in the history of the sport. 2020 was a historic year overall for Hamilton who won a record-equaling seventh Formula One world driver’s championship title to match Michael Schumacher. While the Brit did enjoy a rather comfortable season, his win at Silverstone that year is considered to be one of the nerviest moments of his career as he finished the race on three functioning tyres.

The race

Mercedes enjoyed a front-row lock out for the race with Hamilton starting P1 and teammate Valterri Bottas starting P2. Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen started the race from P3 alongside the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc in P4. McLaren’s Lando Norris completed the top five on the starting grid. Hamilton got off to a fantastic start after the five lights went out, narrowly edging Bottas to the lead of the race. The Finn had other concerns has he had to contend with Verstappen, Leclerc and Norris behind but managed to stay in second place after the start.

Meanwhile, Haas’ Kevin Magnussen had only completed one lap of the race when he collided with Red Bull’s Alex Albon at Club round, sending the Dane careening into the gravel and bringing out the Safety Car. Albon was able to continue, but vibrations on the tyre caused by the shunt forced him to pit after racing resumed on Lap 6 – while the stewards assessed the Thai driver a five-second race time penalty for his role in the incident.

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There was another safety car incident in the race which saw Daniil Kvyat of AlphaTauri lose control of his car and smash into the barriers in what was a scary moment. Thankfully, the Russian emerged out of the rubble unscathed but was visibly upset with the turn of events. Throughout all of these, Hamilton and Bottas managed to keep their rivals at bay to stay at the front of the pack.

Late drama: Hamilton’s three-tyre sprint

With two laps to go, Mercedes appeared to be getting the most out of the tyre life, but then the cameras caught Bottas limping, his tyre having let go at Turn 3 on Lap 50, leaving him with nearly a full lap to recover and his podium position in shreds. Verstappen sprinted into the pits for an almost free pit stop to change to softs and try to claim fastest lap, and was able to squeeze by for second as Bottas fell down the order before pitting.

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Mercedes warned Hamilton off aiming for fastest lap as he neared the penultimate circuit of the race before, shockingly, Hamilton’s own front-left went with half a lap still to go. Verstappen was notified of Hamilton’s puncture as he drove around Copse. “Can I win this?” he radioed to his team. “If you get on with it,” came the reply from race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase.

While the Red Bull man did ‘get on with it’, he was too far behind Hamilton and he couldn’t catch the limping hometown hero despite coming excruciatingly close. Throughout that last stint, Hamilton’s engineer Bono kept on informing of the gap to Verstappen who was more than 30 seconds behind and finished the race only five seconds off the pace. “25 seconds….20 seconds…18 seconds.” The countdown made matters all the more dramatic but in the end, Verstappen’s late pit stop cost him the win and Hamilton would come home to celebrate a famous victory.