F1 legend Lewis Hamilton lost his 'magic' at Silverstone

Hamilton holding F1 mic in Ferrari merch with hand covering face in front of union jack and London landscape background — Photo: © IMAGO

Lewis Hamilton

Lewis Hamilton lost his 'magic' at Silverstone

Lewis Hamilton had started the British GP weekend off so well

Sam Cook Digital Journalist

Sports Journalist who has been covering motorsport since 2023

Tuesday 7 July 2026 17:27

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Seven-time F1 world champion Lewis Hamilton admitted that his Silverstone magic 'disappeared' throughout the course of the British Grand Prix weekend.

Hamilton started the weekend off in fine form, topping Friday practice before also claiming pole position for the sprint race in the first competitive session of the weekend on Friday.

He was unable to convert that pole into a victory in the sprint race, however, missing out to championship rival Kimi Antonelli.

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Then, later on Saturday, Hamilton was surprisingly outqualified by team-mate Charles Leclerc, and had to settle for a third-place starting spot for the main race, behind Leclerc and Antonelli.

For the man who entered the weekend 46 points behind Antonelli in the standings, that Saturday performance was a real blow. But Hamilton still would have harboured ambitions of claiming a 10th British Grand Prix victory on Sunday.

His Sunday, however, did not get off to the best of starts.

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Hamilton's nightmare Sunday

Hamilton received a penalty straight away during the main race, after a start procedure infringement.

That five-second penalty all but ruined his chances of a grand prix victory at Silverstone, and from there on out it was a struggle even to finish on the podium, with the threat coming from Max Verstappen behind.

He eventually finished in third, and was given a huge helping hand by Antonelli's car trouble towards the end of the race.

"All the magic that I had on Friday just disappeared through the weekend," Hamilton told Sky Sports F1 after the race.

"I was just lacking front end. We massively under-egged it with the front wing and that's my fault and the engineering fault.

"From my side, pretty bad from the get-go. I jumped the start, which I have done very few times in the 380-odd races that I've done.

"And then just balance-wise, I noticed Charles went up on his balance, I think compared to qualifying, added more wing, and I felt the car was really oversteer with the diff settings that we had had.

"And so, I took out wing and then I had the biggest understeer at the beginning of the race. So, he just pulled away from me.

"I just couldn't even turn the car until halfway kind of through that first stint, I managed to start turning the car a little bit better with some diff changes, but by then the gap was already huge. And then the five-second [penalty] at the stop, and then there's just one thing after the other."