As Lewis Hamilton prepares to take to his beloved Silverstone later on Sunday, he will likely be looking back fondly at his win at the same track last season.
But his eighth British Grand Prix victory was covered in controversy following a first-lap crash with Max Verstappen that left the Dutchman and his Red Bull team furious. The tenth round of the F1 championship saw the teams travel to Northamptonshire, with the title battle finely poised.
Verstappen and Hamilton had been battling each other closely all year long and the first eight corners of the race delivered some of the best racing the famous track had ever seen. But as the title rivals went through Copse corner, disaster struck for Verstappen.
The Red Bull driver was on the outside and had got his car ahead of Hamilton as the British star tried to pass him on the inside. But two did not go into one and the duo clashed, with Verstappen sent spinning into the barriers at 180mph.
Having suffered a 51G impact, Verstappen was taken to hospital, while Hamilton was handed a 10-second time penalty for causing a collision. Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc inherited the lead and following the pitstops, Hamilton was left fourth, with a ton of work to do.
But in a stunning drive, Hamilton delivered one of the performances of his career, overtaking Lando Norris and Valterri Bottas leaving him nine seconds behind Leclerc. And with just three laps to go, he flew past the Ferrari star on the inside of Copse to claim the win.
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Hamilton launched into typically joyous celebrations as the chequered flag fell, with the home crowd delighting in his victory. But those scenes of triumph left Red Bull furious, with team principal Christian Horner slamming Hamilton for his actions.
"Max has incurred a 51G accident, Lewis Hamilton is a world champion and he shouldn't be making manoeuvres like that. It's unacceptable. He's having to go to hospital for precautionary checks after a 51G accident so I hope Lewis is very happy with himself," Horner told Sky Sports.
"Lewis has got more than enough experience to know that is unacceptable. I'm just very disappointed that a driver of his calibre should make such a move like that. It's dangerous, it looked desperate. For me, that's a hollow victory."
In the immediate aftermath of his win, Hamilton moved to defend himself, insisting he had done nothing wrong. Instead, he took aim at Verstappen's infamously aggressive driving style.
"I just don't feel like he needs to be as aggressive as he is. We are going down to Turn Six and he's bumping wheels with me. But it's cool because there's footage of old Formula 1 great drivers bumping wheels on the straight. I was quite a long way up the inside into Nine and none of us backed out and that was the end result," he told Sky Sports.
"But I took the penalty of course and it's never one person's fault, it's always a balance of the two. I don't feel anything now, I just channel it into my driving, which I did, and I'm proud I was able to do that in front of the crowd. I've managed for a long time without colliding with someone but when someone is just too aggressive these things are bound to happen."
After checks at hospital, Verstappen was declared fit to race at the following weekend's Hungarian Grand Prix. And during his press duties ahead of the race, Verstappen slammed Hamilton's "disrespectful" celebrations as he revealed that the Mercedes driver had called him.
“When one guy's in the hospital and the other one is waving the flag around like nothing has happened, well, you've pushed the guy into the wall with 51G. And not only that but just the whole reaction of the [Mercedes] team, besides that. That's not how you celebrate a win, especially a win how they got it.
“That's what I found really disrespectful, and in a way it shows how they really are. It comes out after a pressured situation. But I wouldn't want to be seen like that. But I would also be upset at myself with a move like that, if it was the other way around. And I would definitely not be celebrating like that.
"I don't think the penalty was correct. We are easily 40-50 seconds ahead in normal conditions, so a 10-second penalty doesn't do anything. So definitely that penalty should have been more severe. He did call me. I don't need to go into details about that, but we did have a chat."
Given Hamilton's struggles with porpoising this year and Verstappen's dominance in recent races, a clash between the duo would appear to be unlikely. And if they did have an incident, it may struggle to live up to the controversy of last year's crash.
