Lewis Hamilton cruises to historic F1 British Grand Prix hat-trick

• Hamilton becomes first driver to win three in a row at Silverstone 
• Mercedes team-mate Rosberg finishes second but demoted to third 

With victory for Lewis Hamilton, plenty of wheel-to-wheel racing and more spin‑offs than seen on TV it is fair to say the British Grand Prix delivered for its 139,000 customers on Sunday.

OK, there was not the crash between Hamilton and Nico Rosberg that many mischievously yearned for in order to call Mercedes’ bluff and watch them give their prang-sters yet another “final warning”. And it would have been nice if the torrential rain which fell 15 minutes before the start of the race, drowning the track, had come a little later.

As it was, the action, such as it was, started behind a safety car, crushing the excitement that normally surrounds the start and the first corner into a damp anticlimax. But the true measure of this race came in its aftermath, as the old Northamptonshire aerodrome was transformed into a stormy sea of waving flags, as the three-day jamboree raised itselfto a climax of celebration, as Hamilton crowd-surfed ecstatically, arms outstretched as he grinned at the scudding clouds above.

The funniest bit came on the podium when Hamilton praised the crowd, especially for the fairness of their spirit; cue Rosberg to come forth and be noisily booed. But the day so fully belonged to Hamilton that everyone else – even the British – was some kind of imposter. He pulled himself alongside Nigel Mansell as the winner of four British grands prix; he equalled the 1960s hat-trick in the event performed by Jim Clark (though one of those races was at Aintree and another at Brands Hatch).

Hamilton, then, is the most successful British driver Silverstone has seen, for one of Mansell’s victories was also at Brands Hatch. Only Alain Prost (five wins) has done better at this famous and excitingly challenging circuit. And Hamilton is within DRS range of the Frenchman.

Hamilton also narrowd Rosberg’s lead in the championship to four points. And that became one point after the German was relegated from second to third place after being reported to the stewards for a breach of the radio rules.

He had a gearbox problem and received instructions from his team as he tried to correct it. He was handed a 10-second time penalty. So Max Verstappen was promoted to runner-up, his second podium finish in succession. His team-mate Daniel Ricciardo is beginning to lose his famous grin. It is not over yet because Mercedes are likely to appeal against the decision.

Hamilton’s one disconcerting moment came at the treacherous Abbey Corner, where nine drivers had difficulty remaining on the track in the course of the afternoon.

The nearest thing to a Mercedes-on-Mercedes crash was when Hamilton almost collided with the safety car at Copse. The decision to employ the safety car was probably correct, though more than a few dissenters made their voices heard.

The real disappointment is that not for the first time the car was kept out for so long – in this case not until five laps had splashed by. When it did remove itself Kimi Raikkonen, Valtteri Bottas, Carlos Sainz, Nico Hülkenberg, Fernando Alonso, Romain Grosjean, Kevin Magnussen, Pascal Wehrlein and Esteban Gutiérrez came stright into the pits.

Daniil Kvyat, Jenson Button, Jolyon Palmer, Rio Haryanto, Daniel Ricciardo and Felipe Massa came in one lap later. But Hamilton and the other leaders, Rosberg and Max Verstappen, remained on track.

The pre-race tyre strategies were torn up faster than a Pirelli ultrasoft. The race changed its rubber, from wets to inters to slicks as the track dried. But before then its narrative had already been established.

Hamilton is so superior to Rosberg in the wet that, when the safety car did come in, the British driver established a lead of almost four seconds on the first lap. Basically, he controlled the race from that point.

The best bit of the day was when the ridiculously precocious Verstappen – he is just 18, remember – started to close on Rosberg, not slowly but rapidly, and on lap 16 he went past him on the outside in a thrilling manoeuvre at Chapel. Rosberg must have felt he was stuck in reverse.

After Verstappen came in for fresh rubber he took a second out of Hamilton’s lead in one lap. But the most exciting action came when Rosberg started to gain on Verstappen to regain second spot. The Red Bull driver held on gamely but Rosberg finally went by him at Stow. Up front, though, nothing changed.

Hamilton finished the race seven seconds ahead of Rosberg before the stewards met to have their drawn-out say.

Apart from Hamilton it was not much of a day for the British drivers. Button, who had started 17th, finished 12th and looked disconsolate about it. Jolyon Palmer, who had been 18th on the grid but was racing ahead of his team-mate Kevin Magnussen at one point, retired with 12 laps to go with a gearbox problem.

Having addressed the problem of the falling pound earlier in the weekend Hamilton wanted to have a look at the world at large after the race. “It’s a very humbling experience to be here in this sport, particularly in a time of difficulty in the world, and to see so much love out there,” he said, as if from the pulpit. “There are people out there from all walks, from all different places, poor, wealthy, going through difficult times and on this day we come together and I think that’s a beautiful thing.”

Which was a nice thing for him to say, although someone suggested he must have been gulping the podium champagne instead of spraying it.