Hamilton wins British Grand Prix in Mercedes one-two

Most notably, Hamilton beat Mercedes teammate, and his number one rival in the race for the championship crown, Nico Rosberg, to pole over the weekend, getting round the circuit some 0.113 seconds faster yesterday, much to the delight of 103,000 spectators.

“It’s a very special day for me to take pole here, the fans give me such motivation and I thank them all for their support”, Hamilton said.

Hamilton started from pole position ahead of team-mate Nico Rosberg, but they both ended up behind the Williams’ of Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas after making bad starts.

Hamilton promptly drew alongside Bottas taking second place back off the Finn at turn three before the safety vehicle was deployed in the most dramatic start to a race this season.

“Around the rain hitting us, it was so calm on the radio about the options but then it was his call”.

Hamilton said their relatively poor starts were caused by lack of grip that followed a decision to reduce the torque on his vehicle by one step. “It’s an indication for us not to throw our toys out of the pram and say everything is wrong”. The Ferrari driver was able to battle his way up to third from as low as ninth.

“For the first time in my life I made the flawless choice on tyres”, Hamilton beamed on the podium.

“We cock up together and we win together and the exchanges on the radio about what was happening and the strategy were spot on today”, Wolff said. When I had got the wets on, that is my ground, I enjoy that.

The loser was the Williams team, which looked set for a third consecutive podium finish after the opening-lap drama when Massa stormed out in front from third.

Lotus driver Romain Grosjean collided with his team-mate Pastor Maldonado, and in trying to escape the accident, Fernando Alonso lost the rear of his auto and inadvertently crashed into the side of his McLaren partner.

The Mercedes team’s success gave them a seventh front row lockout this season, a statistic that confirms the supremacy of the Silver Arrows cars. “I wasn’t allowed to overtake”. “It should suit our auto nicely with the focus on downforce and we learned some useful things during the test, so I’m sure we’ll be strong once again”.

The Mercedes chief, however, proved to have the last laugh in a race filled with incident.

With this defeat, Rosberg trails Hamilton by 17 points at the top of the drivers’ championship once again.

The race was affected by rain which forced saw Hamilton himself briefly slide off at Woodcote on lap 38 but he hung on to take victory in front of his home fans. “It feels the same as it was in the first four races, so we’ll see how it continues through the weekend”.

“It was Lewis’s call to come in. From there it was just bringing it home”.

At the restart, Hamilton tried an aggressive move on Massa immediately after the safety vehicle line, which indicates the place from which drivers can begin to race and at Silverstone is on the entry to the final Vale-Club corner complex.