Lewis Hamilton entered his home race at Silverstone with a 20-point deficit to championship leader Sebastian Vettel, after a tough recovery drive in Austria.
But, he leaves the British GP in a very different position, just one point behind his fierce rival Vettel after a crazy final few laps at Silverstone.
For Hamilton, it was all pretty smooth, with a great start and a controlled drive to victory – his fifth at Silverstone and fourth in a row. Quite an achievement.
But, behind him, it was all change.
Kimi Raikkonen was running second with just three laps of the race to go but he had Valtteri Bottas charging towards him on super-soft tyres.
Then, all of a sudden, he was slowing. His left-front tyre was failing, and he was forced to limp around to the pits to change to supersofts.
That left Bottas to take up second, with Vettel moving into third. But that wasn’t the end of the drama…
In a stunning turn of events, Vettel then suffered a left-front puncture and slowed significantly, even going off track at one point. He got his car back to the pits but the tyre was destroyed in the process.
Vettel dived into the pits on the penultimate lap, just as Hamilton was coming around on his final tour to take the chequered flag, and he ended up falling to seventh.
So, even after his puncture, Raikkonen finished third. Max Verstappen was fourth after also pitting at the same time as Raikkonen, finishing ahead of Daniel Ricciardo.
The ‘Honey Badger’ was on a proper charge after starting P19, and claimed fifth despite falling back at one point after being rudely forced wide early on.
Nico Hulkenberg was sixth, with Vettel down in seventh after his late issue. Not ideal for his title challenge, as we hit the half-way stage of the season…
PROVISIONAL CLASSIFICATION
Massive drama on the final laps as Hamilton cuts Vettel's championship lead to one point#BritishGP 🇬🇧 pic.twitter.com/LAQ8wfDW4b
— Formula 1 (@F1) July 16, 2017
His rival definitely had a better Sunday at Silverstone – he now matches Alain Prost and Jim Clark’s record of five British GP wins.
What did you make of the race? Let us know in the comments!
