Jonny Herbert: Silverstone is such a special place

Nigel Mansell famously used to say that racing at his home grand prix used to be worth a second a lap.

He may well have found that magic ingredient but sadly it didn’t happen for me and, having spoken to Lewis Hamilton, I know he’s yet to find it either.

But Sunday’s British Grand Prix still holds a certain magic for Lewis, Jenson Button and Will Stevens, that mental ingredient you get from having the support of the fans from the moment you set foot at Silverstone.

Even 20 years on from my first grand prix victory there I still get the same flutter and it takes me back to those last five laps when I could see all the British flags waving for me.

When I crossed the line, my first thought was back to my accident at Brands Hatch seven years earlier and everything I’d been through. So the immediate feeling wasn’t really elation, that didn’t come until a bit later.

But I remember it like yesterday, how I choked on Steve Ryder’s last question in the FIA press conference and thinking I would have burst into tears if he’d asked just one more thing, such was the emotion of the occasion.