Hamilton ready for record 6 at Silverstone

Boullier resigns as McLaren racing director

SILVERSTONE, England, July 4, (RTRS): Silverstone can provide the antidote to Austria for Lewis Hamilton this weekend, with a record sixth British Grand Prix win — and his fifth in a row — there for the taking.

The reigning Formula One world champion has been unbeatable in front of his home crowd in recent years and is firm favourite to continue that success and retake the overall lead from Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel.

Last Sunday’s Austrian Grand Prix saw Hamilton’s first retirement since 2016, ending a record run of 33 successive scoring finishes, and left him a point behind his German rival after a race won by Red Bull’s Max Verstappen. Silverstone should come back to Mercedes’ strengths.

The team have gone through what went wrong in Spielberg, where tactical errors were made and Valtteri Bottas also retired due to mechanical failure, and intend to hit back hard.

“When you get knocked down to the ground, you can either stay on the floor or get back up and fight even harder. I am ready to fight,” Hamilton told his 6.6 million followers on Instagram.

The four-times world champion can always count on massive support at Silverstone and that energy has inspired some exceptional performances at a circuit that hosted the first world championship race back in 1950.

The only Briton in a grand prix that comes a day after England play Sweden in a World Cup quarterfinal in Russia, Hamilton will feel the love and is ready to reciprocate.

“I feel very proud to represent Britain, and to be at the top of the sport, and being the one raising the Union Jack, hopefully against a German one, is an honour and a privilege,” he said recently.

Formula One champions Mercedes rallied around Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton of Britain takes a curve followed by Ferrari driver Sebastian Vettel of Germany during the Austrian Formula One Grand Prix at the Red Bull Ring racetrack in

Spielberg, southern Austria on July 1. (AP) chief strategist James Vowles on Tuesday and dismissed reports he had been forced to apologise publicly for a mistake in last Sunday’s Austrian Grand Prix.

Vowles spoke to Lewis Hamilton, his words heard by millions of television viewers worldwide, after a tactical error dropped the Briton from first to fourth when a virtual safety car was deployed.

“That’s my mistake, Lewis, and I’m very sorry for it,” Vowles told the four-times world champion, who later retired from the race, in a rare radio intervention. “I have thrown away the win,” he added.

Mercedes on Tuesday described as baseless any suggestion that Vowles had been “thrown under the bus” by the team.

Meanwhile, McLaren announced the resignation of racing director Eric Boullier on Wednesday as part of a restructuring of the Formula One team’s technical management ahead of this weekend’s British Grand Prix.

The former world champions, currently sixth in the standings after nine races, said Brazilian former Indianapolis 500 winner Gil de Ferran had taken a new role as sporting director.