Hamilton blitzes F1 competition on home ground
LONDON, England (CNN) — Lewis Hamilton has finally given his legion of fans something to cheer about ahead of his home grand prix by flying to the fastest time in the third day of testing at Silverstone.
The Briton, who has had a torrid time in the past month after crashing out in Montreal and starting with a 10-place grid penalty at Magny-Cours, breezed around Silverstone Thursday in front of 10,000 fans.
He finished well clear of Toyota’s Timo Glock and Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen with a best lap time of 1:19.170.
Hamilton said there was no more satisfying feeling than racing in his own country.
It gives you a few extra tenths of a second, just with confidence, so I’m really thankful for the support.
He said winning at home would be a career highlight.
In front of your home crowd, knowing that there’s so many people watching… the sort of roar that I got from qualifying last year [he led the grid] was incredible and making people happy, making the team happy, doing it in our country would be an immense feeling.
