SILVERSTONE: Reigning world champion Lewis Hamilton won his second successive British Grand Prix on Sunday to extend his lead in the championship standings over Mercedes teammate Nico Rosberg.

Hamilton — the first British driver since David Coulthard in 1999/2000 to post successive wins in the race — came home 10 seconds clear of Rosberg in yet another Mercedes 1-2, with Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel in third. Hamilton took his points tally to 194 and a lead of 17 over Rosberg, who had narrowed the gap to 10 prior to this weekend.

Recovering after losing his pole position advantage at the start, Hamilton stormed back into contention and regained the lead with a superbly-executed pit-stop. It was his third win in his home race, fifth this year and 38th win of his career. Four-time champion Vettel took full advantage of the changing conditions with an equally well-timed stop to switch to intermediate tyres during the showers to finish third.

Brazilian Felipe Massa, who led until lap 20, ended up finishing fourth ahead of his Williams teammate Finn Valtteri Bottas, Russian Daniil Kvyat of Red Bull and German Nico Hulkenberg, who was seventh for Force India. Finn Kimi Raikkonen was eighth for Ferrari, after making an early stop for intermediate tyres that ultimately failed to pay off, ahead of Mexican Sergio Perez in the second Force India and two-time champion Spaniard Fernando Alonso who scored his first point this year by finishing 10th for McLaren Honda team.

The race was punctuated by a Safety Car on the opening lap after a multiple collision that removed both Lotus cars and Alonso’s teammate Briton Jenson Button.