Brendan Lines 3rd Aug, 2020

Lewis Hamilton had lady luck on his side taking his seventh British Grand Prix, limping his car home on the final lap on three wheels, ahead of a barnstorming final fastest lap dash from Red Bull’s Max Verstappen in P2.

All eyes were on the midfield battle for 90 per cent of the race as the Mercedes of Hamilton and teammate Valtteri Bottas ran line astern from its front row lockout start positions.

But on lap 50 of 52, it all went wrong as Bottas’ front left tyre suffered a puncture at Turn 3 after showing nervous signs of wear some 10 laps earlier.

Bottas plummetted down the field to finish P11 as he had to complete nearly a full lap on the deflated tyre, his near 30 second lead over Verstappen frittered away as Mercedes were forced to pit Bottas.

With Hamilton looking as though he may just keep his tyres alive with an unasailable gap, Red Bull pitted Verstappen to have a run at the extra championship point on offer for fastest lap.

If only Red Bull had rolled the dice to stay out.

On the final lap Hamilton’s left front also gave way to the brutal loads of Silverstone’s high-speed high-downforce layout.

Hamilton miraculously kept up enough pace and integrity in the tyre after a lockup at the final chicane at Vale to take the grandstand win ironically with no adoring fans to celebrate.

“I have never experienced anything like that before. That last lap was one of the most challenging laps I have ever had,” Hamilton said after the race,

“It was a heart-in-your-mouth feeling and then I was just trying to keep the speed up without damaging the car,

“Bono (Hamilton’s engineer) was giving me the gaps; I think it was 30 seconds at one stage, but it was coming down quite quickly and I was thinking ‘How far is it to the end of the lap?’

McLaren were set to take P5 and P6, until Carlos Sainz suffered the same fate as Mercedes on the final lap.

As the field frantically reshuffled on the final lap, Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc was promoted to third, his second podium in 2020.

While Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo seized the opportunity to pass McLaren’s Lando Norris to take a well deserved P4.

“The race really came alive and that was really good. We had some pace at the end and I was able to get Lando and then Carlos had a problem. I saw Charles [Leclerc] getting closer and maybe with a couple more laps we could have had a podium! We have another chance next week. We were assisted by some chaos, but we were definitely a top six car today and that’s pleasing,” Ricciardo said.

Ricciardo’s teammate Esteban Ocon took sixth from Racing Point’s Lance Stroll after a race long scrap, it was a low hanging fruit result for Racing Point’s Stroll in P9 while Nico Hülkenberg’s car failed to make the grid on his comeback race.

Pierre Gasly finished in P7 after a strong race that saw him take on battles with Stroll, Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel (P10), and Alfa’s Antonio Giovinazzi (P14).

Alex Albon salvaged points from an otherwise challenging day in P8, after a five-second time penalty from an incident with Haas’ Kevin Magnussen dropped Albon back to last.

Sebastian Vettel held on to P10 from Bottas coming home on new soft tyres.

Hamilton now extends his 2020 championship lead over Bottas out to 30 points.

Formula 1 returns to Silverstone next week for the 70th anniversary Grand Prix.