How 945 days of blood, sweat and tears paid off for Hamilton

It would get even better as the season rolled on to Austria. Although Mercedes were a step behind the lead Red Bull and McLaren machines of Verstappen and Lando Norris all weekend, Russell was there to pounce when the two dramatically collided.

The good fortune behind Mercedes’s first win since Sao Paulo 2022 could not be denied, but it was telling that they were the team to pick up the pieces at the Red Bull Ring. Not Ferrari, not Aston Martin, nor any other outfit.

FACTS AND STATS: A record 17 years since his first, evergreen Hamilton takes his 104th F1 win

Hamilton delivers when it matters most

Mercedes returned to the UK with a spring in their step and, despite a low-key first day of practice at Silverstone as the team played a different game with tyre choices, the background data suggested Russell and Hamilton were well and truly in the mix again.

The wet-dry conditions in qualifying seemed to help Mercedes as the field switched from intermediates to slicks on a slippery, cooler track and, after Verstappen’s costly floor-damaging off in Q1, the pair sent the home crowd wild by brilliantly locking out the front row of the grid.

But while Russell led their charge over one lap, a similarly changeable race day saw Hamilton use all of his experience to turn the intra-team battle on its head, even before his team mate hit technical trouble.