F1 2014: Lewis Hamilton victorious at Silverstone

It wasn't a race that looked like it would go Lewis Hamilton's way. His sixth place starting position on the grid didn't seem like it would be a particularly good spot in which to start the British Grand Prix, especially not when team-mate and championship leader Nico Rosberg was on pole. It was a rare occasion, however, when Hamilton wasn't on the receiving end of all the bad luck in the Mercedes team. This time it was Rosberg's chance to suffer gearbox trouble, which meant that Hamilton was home free to victory. The cheers of the British crowd as Rosberg retired and Lewis took the lead was something that must have added considerable happiness to the British driver, who last won the British GP in 2009. Winning his home race, while Rosberg retired meant that the lead in the championship that the German driver had, has now been cut down to four points. And with Toto Wolff saying that his drivers are free to race, the 2014 season of Formula 1 ought to see a continuing close battle for the championship.

Hamilton waves to the British fans who cheered loudly when he took the lead at Silverstone

When the five red lights went out at Silverstone, things didn't progress very far, with Kimi Raikkonen crashing into the Armco barriers. The Ferrari driver collected Felipe Massa along the way, which was rather unfortunate for the Williams driver, given that it was his 200th Grand Prix. While the Armco was being repaired the race was red-flagged and restarted after almost an hour. Fortunately, though, both drivers were largely unhurt, with only a sore ankle causing some worry for the Finn.

Nico Rosberg took the lead of the race at the restart, looking for all intents and purposes like he would hang on to it till the very end. The only real competition, it would appear, would come in the form of his team-mate, Hamilton. For it was at the restart of the race that while Rosberg shot off into the lead, with the McLarens following him, Hamilton made up places and slotted into fourth. He didn't remain there for too long, however, quickly making his way past the McLarens of Jenson Button and Kevin Magnussen. Then he set about closing the gap to Rosberg. Luck wasn't going in Rosberg's favour, and the championship leader had already started to complain of problems while downshifting.

After the first round of pitstops, Hamilton was still behind Rosberg. Something that didn't last too long. On the 29th lap, Rosberg's car got stuck in fifth gear, and even though he asked the team whether there was anything he could do to ensure that he got to the finish line, there was no changing the fact that it was race over for him. From there on, Hamilton was unchallenged all the way to the chequered flag.

There were several battles raging on behind the race leader though. The most entertaining, perhaps, was the close racing between Ferrari's Fernando Alonso and Red Bull Racing's Sebastian Vettel. Try as Vettel would, there was no getting past Alonso, something that we imagine made the German very red in the face, given that he was complaining to the team over the radio repeatedly. Eventually, he managed to get past Alonso at Woodcote, which in turn made Alonso complain to his team, given that Vettel had all four wheels off the limits of the racetrack when he made his move.

The man on the move during the race, behind the leaders, was Valtteri Bottas. The Finnish driver had managed to work his way up from fourteenth on the grid to second place where he was running rather strong and wasn't in any real danger from third-placed Daniel Ricciardo. Ricciardo however was under some amount of pressure from McLaren man Button, who would have liked nothing more than to step onto the podium at his home grand prix. But he ran out of laps, which meant that the order in which they finished was Lewis Hamilton on the top step of the podium much to the delight of the British fans, with Valtteri Bottas second and Daniel Ricciardo third. It was Bottas' second podium in as many races, while Ricciardo managed to get on the podium for the fourth time in 2014.

Rosberg currently leads the championship standings with 165 points, with Hamilton second with 161 points. Daniel Ricciardo, with 98 points, is currently third.