A sudden heavy downpour before the start of the British Grand Prix caught many off guard yet Lewis Hamilton overcome the tricky wet/dry conditions to win an action packed British Grand Prix. The race started under the safety car for the first five laps but as soon as the safety car period ended it was Hamilton who took the advantage of being out in front.

Hamilton never looked troubled as he pulled away from Rosberg, not soon after and with the track slowly drying much of the field pitted for a change to intermediate tyres. However Hamilton, Rosberg, Verstappen and a few others stayed out for a few laps longer.

The track was wet/dry in sections and that meant a few spins were inevitable as Pascal Wehrlein found out. The Manor F1 driver aquaplaned on and into retirement on lap 7 the incident underscored that conditions remained volatile and it also sparked the virtual safety car. By lap 11 Hamilton pitted for intermediates and was followed by Rosberg and Verstappen.

Verstappen seemed to have the edge over Rosberg in these wet/dry conditions and while Rosberg had the superior machine he didn’t seem to have the superior confidence. This allowed Verstappen to hunt down Rosberg and by lap 16 Verstappen had taken second.

Verstappen’s overtake on the outside, on the exit out of the Beckett’s complex was the highlight overtake of the race. Verstappen and Rosberg would be locked in a close tussle for second for much of the race while Hamilton built up a comfortable lead and was controlling his pace from the front.

But the race wasn’t error free for Hamilton, with the track still wet in patches he suffered an off track moment at the high speed Abbey corner but it was the same up and down the field.

As the track dried out Rosberg would surely pull away from Verstappen as he switched to slick tyres. And Rosberg did just that, he pulled a move for second on lap 32 and thereafter punched in some quick times in a bid to catch Hamilton who was nearly 9 seconds ahead.

This was the moment for Rosberg to take the battle to Hamilton, at stake was not just a points differential but also a psychological victory for Rosberg to collect. But Rosberg picked up an intermittent gearbox issue on lap 46, this put to an end any hopes of victory.

Rosberg was unable to select 7th gear and while this allowed Verstappen to close the gap Rosberg had just enough pace to hold the Red Bull at bay. Or so he thought, Rosberg received specific instructions by the team over the radio to switch to a different mode in order to cure the gearbox issue.

Such team communication into how to change engine settings during a race is now banned in F1 and as a result F1 officials deemed that Mercedes had broken the rules and handed Rosberg a ten second penalty. This demoted Rosberg to 3rd and moved Verstappen into second.

Daniel Ricciardo finished the race in 4th underlining the Red Bulls prowess at what is a power circuit. Ferrari expected better but could do no better than finishing with a mixed result, while Kimi Raikkonen finished 5th it was a distant 5th at that. And de-facto team leader, Sebastian Vettel, struggled throughout the race making mistakes and spinning on two occasions.

Nevertheless Rosberg’s demotion from second to 3rd means that Hamilton has closed the gap to his team mate in the drivers championship to 1 point. Championships have been won and lost by a single point but the battle has been more or less reset after Silverstone.

* Subject to appeal. Note – Rosberg had 10s added to his race time for receiving illegal assistance via team radio. Vettel had 5s added to his race time for forcing Massa off track.