Jolyon Palmer shares how Lewis Hamilton ‘relationship’ was key to beating McLaren at Silverstone

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Lewis Hamilton took his record ninth victory at the British Grand Prix alongside a comeback win that has been long in the making.

It was his first victory since the 2021 Saudi Arabian GP and marked a potential fitting end to his partnership with Mercedes, who he is set to leave at the end of the season to join Ferrari.

Key to the race win was Hamilton’s switch to the dry tyres during the final pit stop, having pitted earlier than leader Lando Norris as the track dried up from the brief showers that hit it.

Mercedes switched Hamilton to a set of used soft tyres, which enabled him to produce a fast out-lap and take the lead from McLaren who left Norris out too long.

Writing on his Formula1.com column, Jolyon Palmer believes a partnership between Hamilton and his race engineer Peter Bonnington was what enabled them to make the correct call under pressure.

Jolyon Palmer points to key Lewis Hamilton relationship which seal British GP victory

Out of the record 104 victories that Hamilton has won in F1, 83 of those have been achieved with Mercedes. Since he joined the team in 2013 his engineer has always been Bonnington, affectionately known as ‘Bono’ within the team.

Their partnership has delivered six Drivers’ World Championships, with Bonnington joining Hamilton on the podium after the race to represent the winning constructor.

Palmer believes their ability to communicate under pressure is what enabled them to produce the race-winning call while McLaren faultered.

“Lewis and Bono have formed quite the relationship over the past decade and that communication flow was at its best in a difficult situation, with a race win on the line at Silverstone.

“Whilst the McLaren pit wall were flapping, unsure when to pit or what tyre to be on, the communication between Hamilton and the team was concise, to the point and spot on.”

McLaren throw away British GP victory with ‘frantic’ radio messages

Transcripts of the team radio between Norris and his engineer Will Joseph paint a frantic picture in the final laps of the British GP.

The team were seemingly indecisive over whether the threat was from Hamilton or Max Verstappen, with Norris deciding to pit for a used of soft tyres to cover off the former.

This turned out to be the wrong decision, as Verstappen pitted for a new set of hard tyres and showed blistering pace in the final stint.

It was good enough to chase down Norris for second, with Hamilton later admitting that his decision to run used soft tyres also would have put him under threat from Verstappen if there were more laps left.

To make matters worse, Norris’ teammate Oscar Piastri pitted for new mediums and managed to set lap times that were half a second quicker. It showed just how critical the right calls can be and the fine margins F1 teams must take into account to win races.