Silverstone (England), (IANS) Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton overcame a poor start and late-race rain to win the Formula 1 British Grand Prix in style in front of a packed crowd at the 5.8 km Silverstone Circuit here on Sunday.
Rain towards the end of the race made the Grand Prix chaotic yet exciting as it spiced things up. But the reigning World Champion did well to hold on and win his second successive home Grand Prix in front of more than 140,000 people, ahead of second placed teammate Nico Rosberg and Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel.
Williams’ Felipe Massa, who started third but took the lead of the race overtaking both the Mercedes’ into the first corner of the race, finished fourth ahead of teammate Valtteri Bottas.
Both the Williams’ were leading the race till the first round of pit stops when Hamilton and his team timed his stop perfectly to emerge in front of Massa and Bottas.
Later, after the showers, Rosberg found form and overtook both the Williams cars to finish second.
Red Bull’s Daniil Kvyat finished sixth ahead of seventh placed Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg, followed by Ferrari driver Kimi Raikkonen in eighth.
Mexico’s Sergio Perez brought the other Force India car home in ninth to earn two points from Fernando Alonso of McLaren, who finished 10th to earn his first point of the season.
The rain, which stopped and then returned with greater intensity over the whole track, was bad news for Williams, both of whose cars were passed by Rosberg and then Vettel as the teams juggled with tyre choices under the showers.
Following the win in an hour and 32 minutes, Hamilton extended his lead in the drivers’ standings to 17 points from his teammate. The Briton has now won five of the nine races held this season and overall has 38 GP victories in his career.
The next race is the Hungarian Grand Prix in Budapest on July 26.