Lewis Hamilton streaked to British Grand Prix victory yesterday, delivering a masterful drive in wet conditions to delight a vociferous home crowd and reignite his world title challenge.

Consistent 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.

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.

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.

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.

(AFP Via China Daily July 7, 2008)