Hamilton breaks British Grand Prix record

SILVERSTONE. — Lewis Hamilton took a dominant victory at Silverstone to tie the all-time record of five career wins in the British Grand Prix yesterday.

The Mercedes driver equalled the tally of Scot Jim Clark and Frenchman Alain Prost with his fourth home win in a row to add to his first win for McLaren in 2008.

Hamilton’s victory cut his deficit to Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel to just one point in the championship as the German suffered a front-left tyre failure when running third with two laps to go, dropping to seventh.

The same problem had hit Vettel’s team-mate Kimi Raikkonen the lap before, costing the Finn an almost certain second place, promoting Hamilton’s team-mate Valtteri Bottas to a Mercedes one-two. Raikkonen recovered to finish third.

Bottas’s second place means he closes to within 23 points of the summit with 10 races to go.

Raikkonen salvaged third, just his third podium of the year, but Vettel lost three places and as a result his season-long championship lead over Hamilton has been all-but wiped out.

Having started the race 20 points back on Vettel, Hamilton’s now-one point deficit is the closest the rivals have been in the standings since the second round of the season.

Despite also pitting with two laps to go with a puncture, Max Verstappen took fourth for his first finish since May, while Red Bull team-mate Daniel Ricciardo thrilled the Silverstone crowd with a drive from the back row to fifth.

Hamilton’s British GP week had begun with heavy criticism from the media about his absence from F1’s London street demonstration, but the triple world champion appeared the quickest driver around his home circuit all weekend. — BBC Sport.