Lewis Hamilton won his second British Grand Prix at Silverstone on Sunday and with his team-mate Nico Rosberg failing to finish he closed the gap at the top of the drivers' championship from 29 points to only four.
The only disappointment for the 120,000 crowd was that the promised showdown between the two Mercedes drivers never took place. Hamilton surged into the lead when Rosberg dropped out of the race with gearbox problems on the 29th lap.
Hamilton, though, had been the faster of the two men after starting in sixth position. He had closed the gap on Rosberg to just 2.8 seconds when the German came in for a pit stop after 19 laps. That excellent stop was just 2.7 seconds but when Hamilton pitted just before the halfway mark there was a problem with his right rear wheel and it took 4.1 seconds.
Once again, though, Hamilton started to hunt his man down and the race was heading for a thrilling finale when Rosberg's car came to a halt. After that Hamilton could afford to make yet another conservative stop before coming home to win by 30 seconds ahead of Valtteri Bottas. It was Hamilton's fifth win of the season and his first here since his miraculous victory in the wet in 2008. It was also his 27th career win, putting him level with Jackie Stewart.
At the start, Kimi Raikkonen's awful season continued when he crashed after one lap. He ran wide, hit a bump when he rejoined the track and then flew into the barriers. He hobbled out of the car with a painful right ankle. Felipe Massa reacted quickly to prevent his Williams ploughing into Raikkonen's spinning Ferrari.
Rosberg had got away well from pole but beside him Sebastian Vettel appeared to be in reverse as Jenson Button streaked past him into second place. Then Hamilton, who had gone past Nico Hülkenberg at the start, managed to squeeze past Vettel after being nudged almost off the track by the Red Bull.
The race was red-flagged and it took an hour to get going again. The wait, though, was worthwhile. Apart from Hamilton there was a thrilling drive from the Williams driver Bottas, who made a sequence of overtakes around the outside to promote himself from 14th on the grid.
There was also an entertaining battle between the multiple champions Vettel and Fernando Alonso, who was hit by a drive-through penalty after taking up the wrong grid position. That battle was won by Vettel, after a number of tetchy radio outbursts, but the best Red Bull on the day once again belonged to Daniel Ricciardo, who took the final podium position.
Button is still looking for that elusive first podium place in the British Grand Prix but he was fourth – only eight tenths of a second behind Ricciardo – and will be delighted with the outcome in an uncompetitive car. It was a magnificent race and after a disappointing summer for British sport a great result for the crowd.
(Guardian Service)
