British GP: Hamilton wins despite last lap puncture at Silverstone

Lewis Hamilton clinched victory despite suffering a puncture on the final lap in a dramatic end to the British Grand Prix.

The two Mercedes were truly dominant at Silverstone but tyre failures, first to Valtteri Bottas on the penultimate lap and then for the Briton on the last tour, ended their hopes of another one-two finish.

But whereas the Finn had to pit and ultimately finished 11th, Hamilton could crawl around and just had enough of a margin to beat Max Verstappen across the finish line to claim his seventh home win.

Charles Leclerc also benefited from the incredible turn of events to claim his second podium of 2020 in third.

Before the final two laps, the race had been largely processional with the top four strung out and the main battles in the midfield.  

There was drama before the start though as technical issues meant Nico Hulkenberg was unable to take the start on his unexpected return to F1 with Racing Point.

The first lap saw few changes in position but ended with a Safety Car after Alex Albon and Kevin Magnussen collided at Club corner, with the Haas beached in the gravel.

After a brief period of laps, the race would be neutralised again as Daniil Kvyat crashed on the entrance to Maggotts, with the Russian thought to have possibly had a slow puncture.

Most of the field capitalised to stop in the second Safety Car period to change onto the hard tyre, but Romain Grosjean would be the only exception for Haas.

From that point, the order was largely stationary but for a fierce battle between McLaren, Renault and Lance Stroll in the sole Racing Point.

Daniel Ricciardo would try an audacious pass on Carlos Sainz at Brooklands on the first lap after the second restart but would find himself out of position for Luffield, allowing Norris to sweep around the outside.

Grosjean became the expected roadblock, draw the ire of Sainz and Ricciardo with potentially dangerous moves under braking to stay ahead.

Ultimately, a slow pit-stop undid his alternate strategy as he fell to the back to the back of the field.

At the front, all was serene with Hamilton holding a comfortable advantage over Bottas, who was struggling with graining on his front-right tyre.

And the extent of the problems would be revealed as the Finn suffered a puncture on the penultimate lap, requiring a pit-stop and dropping him out of the points.

Hamilton appeared clear for victory before he too then got a puncture at Brooklands on the final lap, but just had enough in hand to stay ahead of Verstappen at the chequered flag.

Behind Leclerc in third, Sainz would be a third driver to suffer a puncture dropping him out of fourth.

Instead, it was Ricciardo who got ahead of Norris on the final lap to clinch P4 with Esteban Ocon sixth after finally passing Stroll in the closing laps following a race-long duel.

Pierre Gasly produced a strong late charge to take seventh in the AlphaTauri, while Albon made a two-stop strategy work to claim eighth in the second Red Bull.

Stroll would drop to ninth, with Sebastian Vettel holding off Bottas on the final lap to complete the top 10.