Lewis Hamilton survives last-lap puncture to win F1 British GP
Lewis Hamilton claimed a dramatic seventh British Grand Prix victory at Silverstone with a shredded tyre, as both Mercedes Formula 1 drivers hit late trouble.
Hamilton led from start to finish and looked on course to seal a comfortable victory until late drama when both Mercedes drivers suffered punctures in the closing laps.
Bottas, who was running in a solid second, suffered the first delamination three laps from the end and was forced to make an unscheduled pit stop that dropped him out of the points in what is a huge blow to his title hopes.
Hamilton then sustained a blow-out of his own on the final tour after his front-left tyre gave way. Remarkably, the Briton was able to complete the final lap by crawling across the line for his 87th career win.
A third successive victory sees the Briton move 30 points clear of Bottas in the 2020 standings after the opening four rounds of the delayed campaign.
Max Verstappen finished just 5.856s adrift of Hamilton at the flag and would have surely won had his Red Bull team not elected to make a free pit stop after Bottas’ tyre failure, while Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc completed the podium in third.
Daniel Ricciardo claimed a strong fourth for Renault, ahead of McLaren’s Lando Norris and teammate Esteban Ocon, with Pierre Gasly and the recovering Alex Albon in seventh and eighth for AlphaTauri and Red Bull.
Racing Point driver Lance Stroll finished ninth as Sebastian Vettel fended off Bottas to take the final point on offer.
George Russell was 12th for Williams, ahead of Carlos Sainz, who also suffered a tyre blowout late on as he fell to 13th.
Antonio Giovinazzi, Nicholas Latifi, Romain Grosjean and Kimi Raikkonen were the other classified finishers.
AlphaTauri’s Daniil Kvyat walked away unscathed from a huge high-speed crash at Maggots after his right-rear tyre appeared to give way on the kerbs.
The subsequent impact with the barriers tore the front and rear-wings clean off his wrecked AlphaTauri and resulted in a second Safety Car period.
The first Safety Car was deployed after Haas driver Kevin Magnussen was punted off into retirement at Club corner while battling Albon’s Red Bull at the end of the opening lap.
Nico Hulkenberg’s F1 return was short-lived after the German was forced miss the start after Racing Point detected an issue when attempting to fire up his car to leave the garage and head to the grid.
