Sergio Perez believes rivals didn't see the true pace of the updated Force India during the British Grand Prix after the Mexican spent all race behind teammate Esteban Ocon.

It was a sense of deja vu for the hometown team on Sunday with the pit-wall, as they did in Canada, deciding against the use of team orders to allow a driver that appears quicker to move ahead of the other.

Perez fell behind at the start and would emerge behind his teammate after the pit-stop but was faster, as he sat on the gearbox of the Frenchman. Unable to get past, Daniel Ricciardo soon dispatched both of them with Nico Hulkenberg well ahead in the Renault as he claimed sixth, the Williams of Felipe Massa also looked a threat but wouldn't get close enough as the two so-called 'pink panthers' claimed eighth and ninth.

"It was a difficult race and I have a feeling we didn't get to demonstrate our true pace," the 27-year-old claimed afterwards. "We should have finished higher, but in the end we still bring home points with both cars.

"I had a poor start and that compromised the rest of the afternoon because I couldn't recover from it. Silverstone is one of the most difficult tracks on which to overtake, and even though I spent all my race within DRS range of Esteban, I never had a real opportunity to pass him.

"Being so close to the car in front damaged my tyres and cost me lots of downforce so there was nothing I could do."

The team had brought its biggest upgrade package to the race but any kind of improvement wasn't noticeable. There also didn't appear to be any sort of hard feelings about the non-use of team orders, however, perhaps after a spate of recent controversies between the two drivers.

"You can look back at the race and think of things that could have been done differently, but it's always easy to say this after the race," Perez merely commented.

With Max Verstappen scoring his first points since Monaco, the former McLaren driver fell back to seventh in the Drivers' Championship. As the only midfield team to have both cars in the points, however, they further consolidated fourth in the Constructors' standings, now 54 points clear of Williams.

Both Red Bull drivers, Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen, finished the British Grand Prix satisfied they achieved their best possible results at Silverstone on Sunday.

The two men started in very different parts of the grid, with the Dutchman fourth while teammate Daniel Ricciardo had to start from the back row hitting problems in qualifying.

Verstappen would make the most of a bad start for Sebastian Vettel to take third on the opening lap, then would fall back after being undercut by the Ferrari and simply out-paced by a recovering Valtteri Bottas to run fifth, meanwhile his teammate orchestrated a mega comeback to gain 13 positions up to sixth entering the final few laps.

Then came a final twist as the puncture for Vettel promoted both drivers to eventual fourth and fifth place finishes.

What made the Australian's climb through the field better was he had a small moment running wide at Luffield on the Safety Car restart lap, dropping him back down the 18th, having climbed up to 11th before picking off cars one at a time into Stowe, Brooklands and even Copse in the case of Kevin Magnussen.

“I would suspect that the floor had a bit of damage after my off, but I think in the end fifth was the maximum," commented Riccardo after the race.

"Even without that… sure I would have finished a long way up, in terms of race time, but I think I wouldn't have got close to the other guys.

"It was a crazy race, I went through the field, so that was fun – I just had a battle the whole time."

His performance would even be enough to beat home hero Lewis Hamilton to the 'Driver of the Day' award.

"I know the fans are super stoked that Lewis won, but he led from start to finish, so you've got to take some TV time away from him!" he gleamed.

As for Verstappen, even though fourth place meant his first points since the Monaco Grand Prix in May, the inability to compete with those around him was frustrating.

“You have to be realistic – we were just not fast enough for the podium on pace,” said Verstappen. “I think this was the best we could do.

“I got lucky with Seb’s puncture, so this is OK. And I finished the race as well."

Verstappen could have benefited from Raikkonen's issue had he not also pitted three laps from the end, explaining w he admitted it was in response to the problem for the Finn.

“You never really know, I just started locking a lot the inside-front wheel, the left front. Just to be sure, we pitted,” he said.

“All the fast corners are to the right, so it’s quite normal you start wearing the left-front. We pitted quite early, so at one point you start to struggle as the rubber comes off and there’s a bigger risk of punctures, of course.

“It is a positive day," he added in conclusion. "I think in the race we looked a little bit better than in qualifying, we just need to understand why we were struggling that much. I’m happy to finish and fourth is not too bad.”

Mercedes motorsport boss Toto Wolff thinks Lewis Hamilton used the criticism of his decision not to attend a pre-British Grand Prix event as extra motivation to take victory on Sunday.

The man from Stevenage was the only driver not to participate in the first ever 'F1 Live' street demonstration in and around Trafalgar Square last Wednesday evening. That drew some boos from the crowds and some suggesting double standards from the three-time world champion after earlier claiming F1 doesn't do enough to interact with fans on the one hand but then not showing up for an event doing just that before his home race.

His love for the support was then a key theme throughout the weekend from Hamilton, who insisted preparation for the race weekend was the reason for his absence, and Wednesday was certainly forgotten after claiming a fifth victory at Silverstone and fourth in a row.

"I think that sometimes you need the right impulse to extract the maximum performance and that is maybe an answer to the critics," Wolff said.

"I still don't understand why the British hero is being beaten up before the Grand Prix and it probably made him even more determined to show his fans how he can drive, and he can drive."

The eventual result also did much more than putting that minor controversy firmly in the past as it also firmly shifted the momentum in favour of Hamilton in the championship fight, with the Mercedes driver just a single point behind Sebastian Vettel with one more race before the summer break.

Asked if Lewis was now the favourite to claim the crown, however, Wolff played it cautious.

"I think we shouldn't be looking so much in trying to figure out the favourite,” the Austrian claimed.  

"It's halftime, 250 points to be achieved and you just need to extract every inch of performance in the car, and out of the driver, and eventually the points will add up, minimise mistakes like we have done in the past.

"And then when we race to end, start thinking about the favourites."

Sebastian Vettel played down the impact of a puncture that dropped the German from third to seventh on the penultimate lap of the British Grand Prix.

It was already a case of limiting the points loss to main championship rival Lewis Hamilton for Vettel, as the Mercedes driver strolled to victory at Silverstone, and he was heading to finish the race fourth after losing out to Max Verstappen at the start and later being overtaken by Valtteri Bottas through Stowe.

That suddenly became third as team-mate Kimi Raikkonen, running second, suffered his own tyre failure with three laps to go promoting the 30-year-old back on to the podium. No sooner had the Finn exited the pits, however, the four-time world champion was seen recovering from the grass at Luffield as his front left tyre failed.

The result was a complete wiping out of his 20-point lead in the standings before the race, with Hamilton now just a single point behind heading into the Hungarian Grand Prix in two weeks, the last before the summer break.

“Hindsight is great it's easy but at the time [the tyre] felt OK," Vettel replied when asked if the one-stop strategy Ferrari used had been too risky. "Kimi I think had a similar issue, and his tyres were at least five, six laps fresher so I think it caught us both by surprise.”

A reporter then suggested the end result was a disaster for Sebastian. “I think it could've been a little bit better for sure. Disaster, I don't think so," he claimed.

"I think we had a good car, especially in the corners. The balance was alright. In the race obviously, brakes caught fire at the start, which compromised the start and from there it was a difficult race.

“I didn't get past Max, we did it with the pitstop. Then we were like P3, P4, it was clear that Valtteri would come because he benefitted at the beginning because I was stuck, but overall small things here and there that led into a busy afternoon.”

A highlight from Sunday's race was the duel between the former and current Red Bull driver through Stowe and the Vale chicane.

“I'm sure [the fight with Verstappen] looked good but yeah," Vettel chuckled. "I wanted to make it past him, I didn't. So it was quite tricky, I tried everything."

Pirelli revealed initial inspections of the two tyres that failed suggested different reasons for the problems, with Raikkonen's a result of the tread failing, possibly due to a blister, as opposed to a loss to a complete puncture for Vettel with an earlier lock-up fighting Bottas possibly linked.

Daniil Kvyat claims Toro Rosso teammate Carlos Sainz was equally to blame for the collision that took the Spaniard out of the race on the first lap at the British Grand Prix.

The two Red Bull juniors came together entering the Becketts complex having been duelling since Copse three corners prior. Off-line, Kvyat slid into the side of the Spaniard resulting in his immediate retirement and also severely damaging the Russian's car though he was able to continue.

Though the onboard appeared quite conclusive that Sainz was giving space to Kvyat at a part of the circuit two cars don't usually go side-by-side, the 23-year-old, who was also deemed responsible for taking out Fernando Alonso and Max Verstappen at Turn 1 in Austria seven days prior, believes that wasn't the case.

"I knew already that I wouldn't be on the perfect line for Turn 12, where the collision happened, since Turn 10, because you're committed to the corner very fast," he explained.

'The [other] racing driver (Sainz) knows when he sees what happens to me that you're never going to be on the perfect line for Turn 12. So when you put yourself there, you know the collision is 90 percent unavoidable.

"I believe had the other car been anticipating it, it would have been trying to get me back on the next straight but it didn't happen. You just put yourself there and say to your teammate 'OK, you just crash into me'. That's what I believe happened.

"And I completely disagree with the penalty," Kvyat added. "Yes, of course, the responsibility is on me also, but I think we both should be feeling responsible for what happened."

Another aspect he didn't agree with was the reasoning the stewards gave for penalising him, 'returning to the track in an unsafe manner'.

"Second of all I didn't leave the track," he claimed. "Me and the team both agreed on that because the punishment was for leaving the track and rejoining the circuit. I'm narrowly within the track limits and we believe the penalty was too harsh for what really happened.

"I've spoken with James [Key, technical director] and we're both in agreement that we're both responsible for what happened. It's a bit of a shame. It's a misunderstanding."

The relationship between Sainz and Kvyat has been fraught for a while, with the former GP3 champion seemingly ending any intentions to work with his teammate, after suggesting he didn't co-operate in an effort to help each other during qualifying for the Canadian Grand Prix last month.

This incident has certainly done nothing to help that with the former Red Bull driver saying of their partnership: "It's never been fantastic really, so I don't expect anything to change, to be honest. Just carry on.

"To be honest, I don't think I had any intention to be racing each other there. I left him room in Turn 11, and I expected him also to collaborate also in Turn 12, and this collaboration never happened. That's what I think is the most frustrating, there was no intention to be aggressive with each other.

"Not from my side, nor I believe from his side. That's the most upsetting thing. If you really push the limits and then you crash, you say 'OK yeah, you were aggressive with each other', but I didn't have any intention to do that. When I was going wide on that corner, you don't expect anyone to be on your outside there."

Lewis Hamilton closed the gap to just one point at the top of the Formula 1 championship after leading every lap to take victory at the British Grand Prix, as Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen suffer late failures.

The Mercedes driver produced a faultless race, opening up a comfortable lead ahead of Kimi Raikkonen at the start, team-mate Valtteri Bottas made excellent progress from ninth and would pass Sebastian Vettel for third as he used the reverse tyre strategy.

But fortunes at Ferrari turned dramatically with three laps to go as both cars suffered punctures on consecutive laps. Raikkonen was struck first dropping to fourth, but Vettel suffered a more severe tyre failure along the Wellington Straight dropping multiple positions to finish seventh.

With this result, Hamilton almost erased the German's championship lead with the Briton now just one point behind the Ferrari driver at the halfway point of the season.

The race started with a double formation laps after Jolyon Palmer’s Renault came to a halt with hydraulic problems. When the race began, Toro Rosso suffered a team’s worst nightmare as both cars collided at Becketts with Daniil Kvyat again judged to have caused the incident, after taking out two cars on the first lap in Austria, this time taking out team-mate Carlos Sainz through the high-speed corners.

That would cause a Safety Car, however, when the race resumed Hamilton was untroubled out front maintaining the pace and enjoying his home race with the huge crowd supporting him. Bottas made moves passing both Force India's and Nico Hulkenberg for fifth after his gearbox penalty had dropped him down to ninth.

Max Verstappen was able to get a good start overtaking Vettel before the duo had a tense battle that kept the fans entertained while ruining the 30-year-old's hopes of victory. The four-time world champion was able to undercut the Dutchman in the first pit-stops before Max was able to regain fourth despite his own late pit stop.

Daniel Ricciardo would initially move up to 11th on the opening lap after starting 19th but would drop to the back again after the Safety Car restart giving himself all the work to do again.

He would build another amazing comeback passing cars almost every lap it appeared through Brooklands and Stowe with the Australian eventually finishing just one place behind Verstappen in fifth.

Nico Hulkenberg had a positive race for Renault finishing sixth in a clean race and stayed comfortably ahead of the two Force Indias, who were involved in another example of not using team orders to their advantage.

Vettel would finish seventh, but Sergio Perez appeared to have the pace that would have allowed the Mexican to challenge much more strongly had he not had to sit behind team-mate Esteban Ocon for the entire race.

The Frenchman would finish eighth with Perez ninth as Felipe Massa completed another decent recovery after a horrible qualifying session to take the last available point and complete the top 10.

Stoffel Vandoorne nursed his McLaren to 11th after not able to hang in the top 10 battle with Haas struggling as Kevin Magnussen and Romain Grosjean only managed 12th and 13th respectively.

Marcus Ericsson was involved in a near race-ending duel with Sauber team-mate Pascal Wehrlein through Stowe and Vale at one point but would eventually finish three places ahead in 14th.

Daniil Kvyat hailed his damaged Toro Rosso into 15th, after a drive-through penalty as Lance Stroll had a weekend to forget down in 16th after a struggling drive. He only had Wehrlein behind in the second Sauber as an alternative strategy failed.

Fernando Alonso suffered was forced to retire after losing pressure in the fuel system joining Palmer and Sainz for an early bath.

Race Result - 51 Laps:

Retiring from the British Grand Prix was  "less painful" for Fernando Alonso due to the grid penalties destroying his hopes for points, the Spaniard has claimed.

Despite setting the 13th best time in qualifying, new engine components meant the McLaren driver dropped to the back for Sunday's race and left to rely on external factors, such as rain or high attrition, to make progress.

Neither would happen and ultimately the double world champion suffered his fifth official retirement and seventh race where he didn't see the chequered flag.

“Unfortunately we had another issue today, with the fuel pump, I think, which hopefully didn't make any damage to the engine and we can keep using it," Alonso said revealing what caused him to return to the pits.

"It was a difficult weekend with the penalties and starting last,” he added in reflection. "We were following a group of cars, [but] we were not in the points, so let's say the DNF today was a little less painful because we were not able to take points."

For team-mate Stoffel Vandoorne, still yet to score in his first full F1 season, the Belgian had a reasonable chance to change that at Silverstone starting eighth.

However, as Daniel Ricciardo and Valtteri Bottas made their way past from behind, Felipe Massa would be the final driver to end those aspirations dropping the 25-year-old down to 11th.

"It's a shame not to score points today, because our pace was pretty strong, considering the circuit," the former GP2 champion claimed. "But there are plenty of positives to take from the weekend.

"I think the qualifying session was good, and also in the race, to finish so close to both Force Indias and a Williams shows encouraging progress."

Renault driver Nico Hulkenberg insisted his excellent performance to claim fifth on the grid will mean nothing if he is not able to turn it into a solid race result at the British Grand Prix.

The German used the early exit for Daniel Ricciardo to beat the Force Indias and set the sixth best time, benefiting from Valtteri Bottas’ penalty to start fifth on Sunday, his best position of the season so far.

However, the problem Renault has had this year is maintaining positions in the race and for Hulkenberg, his performance on Saturday will mean little if he can't stay there.

"I'm happy -- it was quite good but we've had a couple of really good qualifying results and then a more disappointing Sunday," he explained.

"So no point to brag on about it or get too excited tomorrow is the hard bit of work for us and obviously where we need to win some points. We have to get it done there.”

Hulkenberg showed once again he is one of the best drivers in wet conditions competing at the top of the grid during a damp Q1 and Q2.

"It was tricky but I like these conditions when you are not quite sure where the grip is. There were some damp patches in Q2 so I think we were actually really competitive in those sorts of moments in Q1 and Q2 especially.

“When it started to dry up we were concerned we would slip through the ranks but we were able to keep the pace and hang on to the good position."

The 29-year-old is also being boosted by improvements to the RS17 and is working to compare that to the old-spec parts on his teammate's car.

"The update is working well," he said. "We still need to understand a bit how much it really brings and what it's really done and Jo on the other floor was also going really strong.

“Sometimes you need a bit more time with an update to optimise the set up around it and see where we on.

"Yesterday over one lap, it was going OK already, that was with the new floor. This weekend the one lap pace from Friday afternoon was actually there or thereabouts. It was OK.

“Since yesterday the long run was not so satisfying for me, we've changed a bit since but I can't really tell. We'll find out tomorrow I guess."

The Mercedes drivers were left euphoric after giving the team based in nearby Brackley a home race to remember with a 1-2 at the British Grand Prix.

For Lewis Hamilton, it was a stroll around the Silverstone park after leading from pole and having that position completely to himself throughout the 51 laps. As for Valterri Bottas, a little more adrenaline was involved, recovering from a five-place grid penalty that left him ninth on the grid to inherit second from Kimi Raikkonen after a puncture hit the Ferrari while under pressure.

The alternative strategy worked perfectly for the race winner in Austria seven days earlier, moving ahead of the midfield cars early, he was able to use superior speed to overhaul Max Verstappen before his pit-stop and would then sweep past Sebastian Vettel on the Hangar Straight for third before the last twist to complete a Mercedes 1-2 finish.

"For us as a team, it was really a perfect weekend for the circumstances," The Finn said afterwards. "It's just amazing what we've done today, the car was so good to drive, it was really quick, the team did perfect strategy for both of us, me and Lewis.

"I started the race with soft tyres, I had to run really long and we actually extended the first stint quite a bit because everything was still looking good. Towards the end on supersofts, the pace was good with the fresh tyres.

"I got through on Sebastian and was closing on Kimi, but I think realistically he was too far away for me to get P2, so I got lucky.

"On the other hand he got unlucky to lose his second place in the end, but a 1-2 is perfect."

As for Hamilton, Sunday marked the fifth win at his home race and fourth in a row. With Vettel also suffering a puncture, dropping him to seventh on the penultimate lap, it sees the three-time champion move back to within a point of the four-time champion.

“The team did an exceptional job this weekend and the car felt great. Valtteri did an exceptional job to come back,” he said. “A perfect weekend for us as a team.

“I had a very good start and after that, I was able to manage the gap between myself and Kimi and just bit by bit, extend it by quite a bit.”

Hamilton would admit that he too had tyre issues towards the end, but would avoid a repeat of the 2013 failure that took him out while leading.

“In the end, I had a decent gap so it was really just about managing it, I could see the 14s gap I had to Kimi on the TV screens and then I heard at the end that there were some tyre blow outs.

“I had some graining and vibration on my tyres in the last couple of laps, so I just took it easy as I knew other guys were struggling.”

Finally, he acknowledges the backing he received this weekend in front of home crowd, going crowd-surfing after finishing on the podium.

“The support has just been immense this weekend, with the amount of flags, the amount of support today was tremendous,” he said.

Max Verstappen believes Red Bull will not be able to match the pace of the top teams at the British Grand Prix and will be dependent on mixed conditions to help them.

The Dutchman will be leading the charge for the Milton Keynes-based team as teammate Daniel Ricciardo will start on the last row following a turbo problem in Q1.

The 19-year-old is not enjoying his best period in F1, with five retirements in the last seven races, but has had some change of luck at Silverstone benefiting from the penalties of the cars around to start fourth for the race.

Improving on that could be difficult, however, with Verstappen still unhappy with the balance of his RB13.

"The whole weekend, we haven't been able to get the car like we want to," he claimed. "It's not the grip we want so it's not ideal. It's difficult. I think the track was still improving a little bit in Q3 but the last run was actually alright."

"It's difficult. I think the track was still improving a little bit in Q3 but the last run was actually alright."

"I think they just stepped up a bit today, so we'll fall behind a bit," he added referring to the higher engine modes available to Ferrari and Mercedes.

"We always try, but it will be different to beat them on merit and on pace, but hopefully something happens and I have a bit of luck."

One aspect last year's podium finisher is enjoying is the extra speed the new cars are allowing around the historic circuit.

"It's a lot more than last year," he said of the cornering speeds. "Copse is flat and then when you through Maggots and Becketts, there's no braking just down-shifting with a lift, and then you go mid-corner on the throttle again. It is quick."