Lewis Hamilton streaked to British Grand Prix victory on Sunday, delivering a masterful drive in wet conditions to delight a vociferous home crowd and reignite his world title challenge.
Persistent rain saw nearly all the drivers spin at some stage of the race and though BMW's Nick Heidfeld produced a good drive to finish second and Rubens Barrichello was third, no one could come close to Hamilton who won his home race by a staggering 68.5 seconds.
An emotional Hamilton heralded his third win of the season and the seventh of his Formula One career as "by far" his best ever. "It was one of the toughest races I have ever done. I was thinking as I was driving, 'If I win this it will definitely go down as the best race I have ever done'," said Hamilton, who became the first Englishman to win at Silverstone since Johnny Herbert in 1995.
The British McLaren driver produced an excellent start and a superbly aggressive opening stint to take the lead early on, before going on to close the race out maturely.
"Coming into the last lap I could see the crowds standing up and I was just praying I would finish. You could not imagine the emotions that were going on inside me," he added.
The victory brings 23-year-old Hamilton his first points since winning at Monaco back in May and moves him up into a three-way tie at the top of the world championship.
Hamilton now shares top spot with the Ferraris of Kimi Raikkonen who finished fourth at Silverstone and Felipe Massa who took no points from a nightmare race. Heikki Kovalainen was fifth in the other McLaren, Fernando Alonso took sixth and Jarno Trulli and Kazuki Nakajima were the others to pick up points. After solid rain throughout the morning, conditions brightened up somewhat for the race but a wet track and gusting winds still made for troublesome start conditions.
Hamilton made the best start of all, shooting around the outside to squeeze into second from fourth on the grid and briefly touching wheels with pole-sitter Kovalainen.
Mark Webber, his Red Bull starting from second, suffered an early spin and ended up right at the back of the field. Kovalainen led his team-mate and Raikkonen after the first lap but Hamilton immediately began to apply serious pressure on the leader, forcing him to defend desperately over the next four laps.
Such a sustained attack proved impossible to repel and Hamilton slipped past Kovalainen to take the lead on lap five. As the home crowd cheered their hero another Brit, David Coulthard, collided with Sebastien Vettel's Toro Rosso and both drivers ended up in the gravel and out of the race. It was an unfortunate way for Coulthard to finish his final British Grand Prix - the Red Bull veteran having announced his final home race.
Raikkonen staged a late charge to take fourth while Heidfeld and Barrichello cruised to welcome podium finishes. "I love the wet weather conditions," said Barrichello. "It was a perfect race, everything went for me. It was just magic.
"I have this great feeling it is like I am young, I smile at the problems we encounter and just work harder. I just love the sport and love the speed, I cannot live without it."