Lewis Hamilton leaving Mercedes: Pick your favourite moment from past 12 years

Lewis Hamilton will race for Mercedes for the final time on Sunday, bringing to an end a 12-year partnership that has delivered six drivers’ titles and eight constructors’ championships.

Hamilton, who is joining Ferrari in 2025, has achieved 84 of his record 105 Formula 1 race victories with the team, as well as 78 of his 104 pole positions.

We have picked out nine of the best Hamilton-Mercedes moments from those 12 years. Remind yourself of the details, then select your favourite…

This was a thrilling back-and-forth battle during which Nico Rosberg briefly passed team-mate Hamilton, only for the Briton to chop back across his nose to reclaim the lead. Hamilton then repelled another attack on the following lap, before – in a 10-lap sprint to the finish after a late safety car – keeping Rosberg behind, despite the German having the faster soft tyres.

Hamilton sealed his third drivers’ championship (and second at Mercedes) by forcing Rosberg into a mistake during a frantic last 10 laps and sweeping by to take the lead. The pair had earlier clashed on the first lap. Rosberg congratulated Hamilton as they prepared for the podium interviews, but then appeared furious when Hamilton tossed a ‘second place’ cap towards the German, who launched it back.

Hamilton started 14th following a hydraulic failure in qualifying. He was fourth when rain hit parts of the track with 25 laps to go. As the track got wetter, race leader Sebastian Vettel slithered slightly wide and crashed out in his Ferrari. Hamilton made it to the front and had to defend from team-mate Valtteri Bottas, who was on fresher tyres. It was the first time in Hamilton’s career that he had started outside the top six and won a grand prix, and the result gave him a 17-point championship lead over Vettel.

Mercedes were not expected to do well going into qualifying but Hamilton’s first lap in Q3 was described as “epic” by race engineer Pete ‘Bono’ Bonnington – it was 1.3 seconds faster than his previous best lap of the weekend. Hamilton said afterwards: “That lap felt like magic. I don’t know where it came from. I am overwhelmed.”

In a British Grand Prix taking place with no Silverstone crowd because of the Covid-19 pandemic, Hamilton suffered a front-left tyre failure halfway through the final lap. Max Verstappen was chasing him down in second and ‘Bono’ counted down the gap to the Dutchman over the team radio until the chequered flag. “The most dramatic ending I can remember,” said Hamilton.

In the Covid-shortened 2020 season, victory at the Portuguese Grand Prix in Portimao, where he overtook McLaren’s Carlos Sainz and team-mate Bottas on the way to a commanding victory, gave him a 92nd F1 win – breaking Michael Schumacher’s all-time record. On the team radio, Hamilton said he “owed it all” to his Mercedes team, adding: “I could only ever have dreamed of being where I am today. I didn’t have a magic ball when I chose to come to this team and partner with these great people, but here I am.”

Hamilton’s record-equalling seventh F1 title – and sixth with Mercedes – was sealed at the rain-affected 2020 Turkish Grand Prix. “That’s for all the kids out there, who dream the impossible,” he said on team radio.

A weekend full of drama included grid penalties, and disqualification from qualifying for a rear-wing infringement. In the sprint on the Saturday, he started last but made his way through to finish fifth. Another penalty meant he started the Sunday grand prix from 10th but he overtook title rival Max Verstappen with 12 laps to go after an intense battle for one of his greatest wins.

The two-and-a-half-year drought without a race win was finally ended. Hamilton qualified second and held off Verstappen and McLaren’s Lando Norris in a wet-dry race to take his 104th career victory and ninth at Silverstone to become the record-holder for F1 wins at a single circuit. “This one means so much to me,” he said.