Lewis Hamilton was feeling unsurprisingly emotional at the end of the British Grand Prix at
Silverstone, after the rollercoaster ride on which he has been a passenger over the past few weeks finally came to a shuddering halt in the best possible fashion.
The McLaren-Mercedes ace produced a truly sublime performance to triumph in front of his thousands of partisan supporters and send the crowd home soaked through – but very happy indeed. What's more, the result – taking the chequered flag more than a minute ahead of anyone else and lapping all bar his two fellow podium finishers in the final reckoning – has propelled him back to the top of the drivers' standings once more and re-ignited the world title fight as the season reaches half-distance.
Key to the young Briton's success was a blistering getaway when the lights went out, that saw him dive up the inside past both
Kimi Raikkonen's
Ferrari and
Mark Webber's
Red Bull Racing into second position from fourth on the grid. He even poked the nose of his MP4-23 briefly ahead of the sister Silver Arrow of pole-sitting team-mate
Heikki Kovalainen into Copse for the first time, before the Finn got more grip on the wider outside line and Hamilton wisely decided that discretion was the better part of valour so early on in the race.
After looking particularly menacing over the opening few tours, however, the 23-year-old was not to be denied, and sling-shot his way past Kovalainen into Stowe on lap five. Once Raikkonen's challenge had faded with poor tyre choice, Hamilton was left on his own out front, mastering the torrential conditions flawlessly – much as he had done at Fuji
en route to Japanese Grand Prix glory last year – to take a perfect ten.
“This was the toughest race,” he reflected afterwards, “but also one of the best ones I have ever driven. It is by far the best victory I've ever had.
“It was so extreme and slippery out there, very similar to the Japanese Grand Prix in Fuji last year. I had troubles with my visor and tried to clean it a couple of times.
