Lewis Hamilton receives poignant three-word message from Sebastian Vettel after British GP

Sebastian Vettel showed his respect for Lewis Hamilton after the British Grand Prix by dubbing the Mercedes driver the GOAT – the ‘greatest of all time’.

Vettel and Hamilton raced against each other for many years(Bryn Lennon – Formula 1/Formula 1 via Getty Images)

Sebastian Vettel hailed Lewis Hamilton as the “greatest of all time” after claiming a record ninth victory at the British Grand Prix.

The duo have had their share of battles on the track, with Vettel himself once being the youngest world champion in Formula 1 history at the age of 23.

After Hamilton’s victory over Lando Norris and Max Verstappen on Sunday, marking his first grand prix win since 2021, Vettel took to Instagram to hail the British icon’s achievement, the Express reports. Vettel captioned a celebratory photo of Hamilton with a three-word message that read: “GOAT. Congratulations Lewis.”

The post was shared by the Fastest Pitstop account, prompting fans to join in hailing Hamilton’s monumental achievement. One fan said: “Legend knows legend.”

Another said: “Everyone knows it… EVERYONE KNOWS IT! His WIN IS HUGE!” A third added: “I think now we have to say Lewis officially takes the GOAT spot over Michael.”

Hamilton added another Silverstone trophy to his collection on Sunday, taking his career win tally to 104 races in 17 years. He holds the records for most wins, pole positions and podiums in the sport.

Hamilton won a record ninth single-track title((Kym Illman/Getty Images)

An emotional Hamilton spoke about his victory, saying: “Yeah, I can’t stop crying. I think it’s been since 2021. I get up every day, I try to fight, I try to train, I try to focus on the task and work as hard as I can with this incredible team.

“And this is my last race here, the British Grand Prix, with this team, so I wanted to win for them so much because I love them, I appreciate them so much, all the hard work they’ve put in all these years. I’ll be forever grateful to everyone in this team, everyone at Mercedes and all our partners, and also all our incredible fans.”