The 39-year-old Hamilton choked up and couldn't stop crying.
Driving the straight that bears his name, he was the first to rush to the familiar and unfamiliar checkered flag—
After 945 days and 57 games, he won the 104th championship and the ninth win of Silverstone at home!
In that instant, he overtook Schumacher once more – the driver with the most wins on the same track in G1 history.
Holding the Union Jack, he pulled to the No. 1 finish grid that was once his own.
Before he took off his helmet, he had already lowered his head, and it was difficult to suppress his excitement - words are superfluous, and we cannot most accurately describe the mood of the old man at this time.
Hugging their parents and all the team staff, the blue sky and white clouds appeared over the rainy silverstone to welcome their homegrown pride to the podium for the 199th time.
For Mercedes, they will share the honour with Hamilton.
It was Hamilton's 150th podium for Mercedes and, sadly, the last time he stood on the top podium in Silverstone in a Mercedes racing suit.
Silverstone 2024 was full of drama, and if you're a McLaren and Norris fan, you'll probably be scolding during the race and sharing that downturn with Lando after the race.
But if you are an Iron Buddha Temple, looking at the old man swishing champagne on one side and the red racing car on the other side, you don't know how to feel for a while.
The first rain was a false shot, in addition to allowing the two McLaren with high downforce settings to beat Mercedes to one or two, leaving Verstappen to fifth, and also shaking Leclerc's strategy group.
In seventh place, he was called in on lap 20 for a half-wet tyre, and then there was no more. He made four pit stops and changed two semi-wet tyres, and he missed all the benefits of rain and no rain anyway, and paid the price of three points in advance for the Monaco home championship in May.
Then McLaren kept making mistakes and handed over the title to Hamilton. The real rain came on lap 27 and instead of a two-car pit stop, they let Piastri do one more lap outside.
It was this lap where the course conditions changed dramatically and McLaren's previous advantage was instantly wiped out.
The second mistake was a series of combinations, with Norris pitting a lap slower than Hamilton on lap 2 and switching back to dry tyres, but McLaren didn't give him a medium tyre – the team had told Lando in TR three laps earlier that the mid-tyre was the best option for the final stretch and that the rivals had no spare mid-tyres.
He then made a 4.5-second pit stop after a series of mistakes with the team while changing tyres, just in time for Hamilton, who had made an early pit stop, to cut under.
We wonder if McLaren hasn't been close to the championship group for too long, and is a bit of a distraction? I understand Norris's frustration firsthand.
The last 14 laps were actually the story of Verstappen, who made the right choice at both stops, chasing Hamilton – dreaming back to 2021.
Lando didn't defend at all when he was passed by Panzi - the soft tyres that faded too quickly left McLaren without much trouble in the final stages.
For Mercedes, the biggest misfortune is Russell's inexplicable water pressure system failure to retire, and for Red Bull, there is nothing to say about Perez, who can't hold up the wall.
As for the red team, alas.
I finally brushed the fastest lap, and I was still seven points ahead.