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“It was worth the risk in that first game. We had a good chance. We dried up enough after that.”

Race engineer Hugh Bird’s message to Perez after the British Grand Prix seemed like a grasping at straws moment.

Perez made it some But even if we accept that the drivers taking the race were taking risks at face value – and ignore the fact that most of the other drivers decided that the conditions were not wet enough yet – it still shows how badly Red Bull had punctured, which required such an intervention to have any hope of climbing into the points. (Pérez had been relying on a safety car the day before to get him back into contention.)

The miserable fallacy that Perez committed, while the clouds were crying for him, was that by the time the rain got heavy enough his sneakers were already torn from running on a track that had only dried since he put them on.

And the final shame? No, it wasn’t being outdone twice by race winner Lewis Hamilton and his team-mate Verstappen. It was finishing behind Esteban Ocon’s Alpine, which Perez passed in that early “surge” to finish 15th. Jack Cousins

Winner: Lewis Hamilton

“I have a really bad memory, I don’t feel like I can compare this to anything else to be honest.”

That was part of Hamilton’s response when asked where his 104th Formula 1 race win would rank among his best.

Hamilton was never one to remember what had happened, but his reaction after the race – moved to tears and his extended celebrations in Ferme Park – were a sign of how important this win was to the seven-time champion.

Emotionally, this achievement is only matched by his decisive title wins and his first win in Canada 17 years ago. Hamilton had never experienced a win drought in his career until the past few years, so ending it would have carried huge emotional significance.

The race wasn’t bad at all. He held off George Russell before his team-mate had a problem, and his laps behind Lando Norris forced McLaren into making a mistake at the final pit stop.

Hamilton’s sticking to the fast softs and keeping old title rival Verstappen behind him in the closing laps was a reminder that his peak performance, especially on Sundays, is still at elite level. -Josh Sottile

Loser: Lando Norris

This is the second time in two races that Lando Norris has outscored his rival for victory, and his post-race behaviour was very clear.

As one Sky Sports Formula 1 user pointed out, a podium finish at the British Grand Prix twelve months ago would have been a great result (as it was at the time), but now it is a bitter disappointment.

What will hurt Norris more than anything else is that two strategic mistakes cost him the win. The first was the decision to keep him off the track for another lap while Hamilton and Verstappen stopped for slicks, and the second was that when he stopped on track, his McLaren was fitted with softs instead of mediums.

But Norris not only lost the win, he also lost second place to Verstappen’s Red Bull. The main reason for this was that he was using the soft tyres in the end.

Had he taken the averages that were in the garage waiting for him, things would certainly have been very different – even if the win had passed him by, he likely still had enough speed in the car to finish second.

It was great to have Norris at the races this year to win, but now he and McLaren have to seize the opportunities, and quickly. Rob Hansford

Winner: Max Verstappen

Of all the recent races in which Verstappen and Red Bull’s supremacy has been challenged, this one – in which he was beaten in a fair fight – was perhaps the one that best showed his and the team’s level while the second car continued to underperform.

The RB20 wasn’t the fastest car on race day at Silverstone. It wasn’t even the second-fastest. The dry start of the race suggested that, as did the middle, when Verstappen dropped ten seconds behind Norris and was caught by George Russell.

But Verstappen and his Red Bull team were undoubtedly the most intelligent in the face of the unexpected circumstances; they were proactive without being aimless.

It might have been different had it not been for the mistake at Coppes in Saturday’s first practice session – which caused a loss of downforce and Verstappen to finish fourth on the grid – but under the circumstances, second place on Sunday was probably more, perhaps more, than we could have hoped for. JC

Loser: McLaren

Things could have been very different for McLaren had they succeeded in executing their strategy at the British Grand Prix.

His approach was too conservative, and a lack of conviction cost Norris a potential win, and cost Oscar Piastri a podium.

Throughout the race, the team was relying heavily on its drivers to make these decisions on the fly, without the benefit of the bigger picture. It is no wonder then that team principal Andreas Stella said after the race that McLaren needed to take more of this responsibility in the future.

Piastri claimed that McLaren had made 99% of the right decisions, and that two decisions had let them down. The problem at Silverstone was that these two decisions had had disastrous consequences for the final result.

McLaren have been a ‘learning machine’ for most of the season, but now that they are regularly competitive, that role is starting to fade. They are winning races again, and need to have the confidence of a team that matches that status.

If we had followed this approach, things would have been completely different on Sunday. – R.H

Winner: Nico Hulkenberg

Just a few weeks ago, RB looked comfortable leading the midfield. Then came Hulkenberg, the outgoing Haas team’s spearhead, who took a superb sixth place in two races.

Just as Mercedes will miss Hamilton, Haas will also miss what Hulkenberg has given to the team since his return to Formula 1 last year.

He did not let even a difficult start to the race stop him as he regained the three places he lost on the opening lap thanks to a timely stop for the intermediate races and the death of George Russell’s Mercedes.

After the race, Hulkenberg claimed that Haas could be fifth fastest after their latest update, and that claim looks to be true in light of the evidence we got in Austria and Silverstone.

He qualified and raced against both Aston Martin works cars, and Haas’ advantage over Red Bull should give him plenty of confidence that he can close the gap (just four points) in the battle for sixth in the constructors’ championship, especially given the form that Hulkenberg has reached.

Sauber are having a miserable time in Formula 1 at the moment – ​​and look far less likely to sign Carlos Sainz than they once did – but they can at least take solace from the fact that they will have the services of the best performer in Formula 1’s midfield in 2024. – JS

Loser: George Russell

Russell’s race had already started to take a turn for the worse before it came to an early end on lap 34, but his retirement put the final nail in the coffin of what could have been another great race weekend.

After starting from pole, Russell was quickest in the opening stages, but when the rain started to fall he didn’t have the pace to match either team-mate Hamilton or McLaren. When both drivers came into the pits for the first time, he then fell behind Verstappen’s Red Bull.

But the race was not over yet, and given how events unfolded afterwards, it is entirely plausible that he could have also been involved in the chase for victory at the end.

But in the end, Russell had to return to the pits with a water pump problem. That would hurt him. When he saw Hamilton standing on the top step of the podium, Russell would have no doubt believed that it could have been him who won. – R.H

Winner: Alex Albon

Albon needed sharp reactions at the start to prevent his race from coming to a premature end after three turns.

But he rallied after the loss of positions he suffered while avoiding a collision with Fernando Alonso’s Aston Martin and ran through the pack in the secondary points race.

Russell’s retirement and a Ferrari/Charles Leclerc strategy error (more on that below) helped his cause, but his ninth-place finish at the flag – a result that doubled his and Williams’s points total for 2024 – was just reward for a brilliant pass around the outside of Yuki Tsunoda at Stowe late in the race, plus his and the team’s overall execution this week. JC

The Loser – Charles LeClair

This was not as bleak as Perez’s failed career with Inter.

But it was a missed opportunity for the team and driver, who took an unnecessary risk right after Leclerc had at least managed to overtake the best of the rest to finish seventh.

While Ferrari will be blamed, Leclerc does have some of the blame. He had the same ability to read the conditions as his rivals, had the feedback they gave him, and ultimately insisted on a pit stop call when the track wasn’t wet enough.

This kind of decision-making reinforces the impression that Leclerc lacks the kind of global racing assessment – and authority – that his team-mate Sainz has. JC

Loser: Alps

What looked like a really strong turnaround for the 2024 Alpine season saw a sharp decline at Silverstone.

This weekend was more reminiscent of its early season struggles than the true top ten car that the A524 has improved on recently.

Its driver Pierre Gasly was unable to even start the race due to a gearbox problem, and his team-mate Esteban Ocon was hardly a factor in that, finishing two laps behind as one of those who had opted for the medium tyres too early.

– Two points for Williams (now five behind Alpine) and another big win for Haas – which puts them 18 points clear in sixth – add to a painful weekend for Alpine. JS