Hamilton wins on three tyres
Silverstone, Aug. 2: Lewis Hamilton held on to win the British Grand Prix on Sunday despite a puncture on the last lap to clinch an 87th career win and move within four of Michael Schumacher’s Formula One record.
The championship leader's record-extending seventh Silverstone win saw him finish six seconds ahead of Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, who unexpectedly moved up a place after Hamilton’s Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas sustained a puncture with three laps left.
With Hamilton so far ahead, Verstappen went in for a tire change in a bid to gain an extra point for the fastest lap but that pit stop ultimately cost him victory because Hamilton’s front left shredded with half a lap to go. Verstappen swallowed up most of the 25second gap but ran out of time. Charles Leclerc finished third for Ferrari.
When his tire melted, Bottas had to come back for a tire change and dropped out of the points altogether into 11th spot and 30 points behind Hamilton in the title race.
Sebastian Vettel, a fourtime F1 champion, placed
10th and has now failed to
● Lewis Hamilton, racing for Mercedes, overcame a flat left front tyre in the final lap of the Silverstone Grand Prix to claim an unprecedented seventh win at his home Grand Prix.
get into the top five for his worst start to a season since 2008.
McLaren's Carlos Sainz Jr. also sustained a puncture on the last lap and fell to 13th.
There is another race at Silverstone next Sunday.
Earlier, the British Grand Prix was forced to run behind a safety car on Sunday after an opening lap crash.
Kevin Magnussen of Haas collided with Alex Albon's Red Bull at the final corner, the Danish driver spinning off into the gravel after trying to squeeze past the Thai driver.
The front left wheel of his Haas car was smashed off after the impact as he attempted to cut across Albon at the apex of the corner leading on to the straight. — Agencies