Hamilton wins enthralling British GP as rain hits

Lewis Hamilton took his third home victory after a thrilling British Grand Prix at Silverstone.

The pole sitter dropped to third at the start of the race as Williams led the opening 20 laps, before rain in the second half of the race saw tyre calls crucial. Hamilton timed his stop for intermediates to perfection with Nico Rosberg closing in, and eased home in the final ten laps to extend his championship lead to 17 points.

Rosberg had to settle for second after being stuck behind the two Williams drivers for much of the race, finally getting through thanks to the wet conditions. However, when just two seconds behind Hamilton, Rosberg stayed out as his team-mate took to the pits and the extra lap on slick tyres cost him a chance of victory.

Sebastian Vettel came home third after stopping on the same lap as Hamilton, allowing him to jump Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas who had also stayed out.

It could have been very different for Williams as Massa took the lead at the start of the race, while Bottas momentarily held second before Hamilton retook him at Turn 4. The safety car was deployed on the opening lap after Romain Grosjean was caught in an incident which saw Fernando Alonso spin taking avoiding action, with the Spaniard hitting Jenson Button and taking his team-mate out of the race.

On the restart, Hamilton attacked Massa in to the final corner having passed the safety car line, but ran wide and Bottas came through to take second place. From that point on, the top four ran closely together with tensions running high between the Williams drivers.

Both Massa and Bottas were told not to race each other, but Bottas ignored the message and said he was going to overtake using DRS on the back straight. Williams told the Finn he would have to make the move cleanly, and Massa never allowed him a clear opportunity from that point onwards until the first pit stops.

Hamilton was first to pit of the leaders and when Massa had a slow stop on the next lap, the championship leader was comfortably ahead. Massa and Rosberg had pit on the same lap and were released side-by-side, but the Williams emerged ahead, with Bottas splitting them a lap later when he stopped.

Rosberg struggled to find a way past Bottas on the hard tyre as Massa pulled a small gap, with Hamilton escaping five seconds up the road. However, with rain threatening there was a Virtual Safety Car period as Carlos Sainz stopped at the final corner, and the rain hit on the restart.

The short, sharp shower saw the track left wet at Luffield and Woodcote through to Copse, but the rest of the circuit was dry. Rosberg took full advantage and passed Bottas out of Copse before diving up the inside of Massa under braking for Village, the right-handed Turn 3.

The rain eased for a while, but Kimi Raikkonen and the two Manor drivers had already opted for intermediates, costing them a lot of time on the largely dry track. Rosberg was more confident in the tricky conditions and reeled in his team-mate before Hamilton dived in to the pits for intermediates himself as the rain restarted.

It proved a crucial decision, as Rosberg, Massa and Bottas all had to tiptoe round on slick tyres as the rain intensified. Vettel followed Hamilton's lead and when the three drivers ahead of him all stopped a lap later, the German found himself in third behind Hamilton - who had a 10s lead - and Rosberg.

No further heavy rain fell, but the likes of Raikkonen and the Manor drivers were on worn inters and struggled for pace, with Will Stevens sliding off in to the wall and damaging his front wing. Bottas struggled massively on the inters and dropped back in to the clutches of Daniil Kvyat on the final lap but held on to fifth place ahead of the Red Bull by 0.7s.

Nico Hulkenberg had been running fifth at the start but slipped to seventh by the end, while Raikkonen dropped to eighth as a result of being on the intermediate tyre too early. Sergio Perez finished ninth while Alonso recovered to tenth place to score his first point of the season at McLaren, finishing slowly as Marcus Ericsson closed in.

Click here for Saturday's gallery from the British Grand Prix

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