Lewis Hamilton has won a wet British Grand Prix after leading from start to finish, with Rosberg in a shaky second and Verstappen an impressive third.
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The rainy conditions called for the GP to start with a safety vehicle, which meant that there was no exciting inter-team battle between Hamilton and his rival and teammate Nico Rosberg at the green light.
It means Hamilton, who claimed his fourth victory at Silverstone, will head to the Hungarian Grand Prix in a fortnight’s time just one point behind Rosberg in the championship. “I’m really happy”, Hamilton told the crowd that stood and cheered him all the way round the final lap with the sun shining at last.
“But I would definitely say through that rough patch I was going through in terms of reliability, it is hard to handle when you want to win the world championship as much as I do”.
Nico Rosberg has been demoted from second to third in the classification for the British Grand Prix after the stewards found Mercedes in breach of team radio restrictions.
Verstappen’s Red Bull team-mate Daniel Ricciardo finished fourth, half a minute behind Hamilton on another dominant weekend for the Mercedes steamroller.
It was Hamilton’s fourth win in his home race and third in succession.
Up at the front, though, there were none from Hamilton as the Silverstone hero gave his adoring public the result they wanted.
But a radio message broadcast to Rosberg, advising him on his gearbox problems late in the race, was deemed illegal by the stewards, led by 1992 World Champion Nigel Mansell, and a penalty was handed down to the German.
Sixth and seventh spots went to Perez and Hulkenberg in the Force Indias, eighth to Sainz in the Toro Rosso, ninth to Vettel in the Ferrari and tenth to Kvyat in the second Toro Rosso.
With Verstappen gaining quickly, Rosberg informed the team of a gearbox problem six laps from home.
Early on, Rosberg tried to regain his position but Verstappen kept edging him out, particularly in Stowe.
Hamilton once trailed Rosberg by 43 points after hard start to the campaign and said of his current gap to his team-mate: “That’s kind of insane, it’s been tough”.
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Engineer: “Avoid seventh gear, Nico, avoid seventh gear”.
