LEWIS HAMILTON won an entertaining British Grand Prix at Silverstone to close the gap on Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg to four points in the title race.
The big action at the Northamptonshire circuit started almost immediately with a first Formula One red flag in 14 years on an opening lap after former world champion Kimi Räikkönen crashed into a barrier.
Räikkönen, rejoining the race having gone wide at Aintree corner, span wildly off the grass and right across the track, catching the unlucky Felipe Massa on the way.
And there then followed a delay of an hour as the damaged guardrail was hastily repaired.
For the record, Räikkönen himself has suffered bruised ankles from the 150mph shunt and is a doubt for the German Grand Prix in two weeks.
But the lack of series injuries suffered to him or any of the other drivers is once again testament to the fine progress made over the years by the authorities to make the sport much safer.
Once the action resumed, so did the title fight, as Hamilton - who qualified a disappointing sixth - swiftly passed McLaren pair Kevin Magnussen and Jenson Button to move behind leader Rosberg.
Not for the first time this season, the 2008 world champion then lost time to his German team-mate in the pits - but fortune finally favoured the Briton on lap 29 when Rosberg retired with a gearbox problem.
It was Rosberg's first retirement of 2014 - in fact, his first for 25 races - and it denied the capacity Silverstone crowd what looked set to be a fascinating head-to-head.
Nevertheless, Hamilton's dominant position earned him big cheers from most of the 120,000 spectators, and there was still plenty of exciting action to follow from the stands.
Williams' Finnish driver Valtteri Bottas provided much of it, moving up from 14th on the grid to a career-best second place.
Meanwhile Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo also finished on the podium and thus continues to outperform his more decorated team-mate, four-time defending champ Sebastian Vettel.
Fourth place went to Button, an encouraging result for the 34-year-old Frome flyer in his previously struggling McLaren. It did mean, though, that he missed out on a podium at Silverstone for the 15th time.
Vettel, on fresher tyres, beat Ferrari's Fernando Alonso to fifth after a great tussle throughout the latter stages of the race, which provided the true definition of wheel-to-wheel racing. It really was first class stuff.
The other points positions went to Magnussen in seventh, Nico Hulkenberg in eighth, Russian youngster Daniil Kyvat in ninth, and Jean-Eric Vergne in 10th.
The title race, then, remains a two-horse race with Rosberg (165points) narrowly ahead of Hamilton (161), and Ricciardo (98) placed as the best of the rest.
Alonso is fourth on 87 points ahead of the impressive Bottas (73), who moved ahead of Vettel this weekend.
A hugely important weekend, it has been too - with Hamilton able to put behind his recent disappointments to get back in the thick of the title battle.
It also provided some Great British cheer after a pretty miserable sporting summer so far. England's footballers, of course, flopped out of the first round of the World Cup and the rugby union side were whitewashed by the All Blacks in New Zealand.
The cricketers were shocked at home by Sri Lanka, and this week Andy Murray provided a limp defence of his hard-earned Wimbledon crown.
Even the first stage of the Tour de France this weekend had brought bad news as Manxman Mark Cavendish crashed out of the whole race in the closing sprint.
But, as unlikely as it seemed on Sunday morning, Hamilton has restored a smile to the face of British sport - for now.
And, as Hamilton freely admits himself, he is ready to go into "attack mode".
Particularly sweet would be if he could follow up this win with another in the next Grand Prix. It is held in Hockenheim - Rosberg's home circuit - on 20 July.
FORMULA ONE 2014
| Date | TV | Pole position | Fastest lap | Winner | |
| 16 March | Sky | Australian Grand Prix | Hamilton | Rosberg | Rosberg |
| 30 March | BBC | Malaysian Grand Prix | Hamilton | Hamilton | Hamilton |
| 6 April | Sky | Bahrain Grand Prix | Rosberg | Rosberg | Hamilton |
| 20 April | Sky | Chinese Grand Prix | Hamilton | Rosberg | Hamilton |
| 11 May | BBC | Spanish Grand Prix | Hamilton | Vettel | Hamilton |
| 25 May | Sky | Monaco Grand Prix | Rosberg | Räikkönen | Rosberg |
| 8 June | BBC | Canadian Grand Prix | Rosberg | Massa | Ricciardo |
| 22 June | Sky | Austrian Grand Prix | Massa | Perez | Rosberg |
| 6 July | BBC | British Grand Prix | Rosberg | Hamilton | Hamilton |
| 20 July | Sky | German Grand Prix | |||
| 27 July | Sky | Hungarian Grand Prix | |||
| 24 August | BBC | Belgian Grand Prix | |||
| 7 September | BBC | Italian Grand Prix | |||
| 21 September | Sky | Singapore Grand Prix | |||
| 5 October | BBC | Japanese Grand Prix | |||
| 12 October | BBC | Russian Grand Prix | |||
| 2 November | Sky | United States Grand Prix | |||
| 9 November | Sky | Brazilian Grand Prix | |||
| 23 November | BBC | Abu Dhabi Grand Prix |
STANDINGS
Drivers' Championship
| P | Driver | Team | Points |
| 01 | Nico Rosberg (Ger) | Mercedes | 165 (3 wins) |
| 02 | Lewis Hamilton (Gbr) | Mercedes | 161 (5 wins) |
| 03 | Daniel Ricciardo (Aus) | Red Bull-Renault | 98 (1 win) |
| 04 | Fernando Alonso (Spa) | Ferrari | 87 |
| 05 | Valtteri Bottas (Fin) | Williams-Mercedes | 73 |
| 06 | Sebastian Vettel (Ger) | Red Bull-Renault | 70 |
| 07 | Nico Hulkenberg (Ger) | Force India-Mercedes | 63 |
| 08 | Jenson Button (Gbr) | McLaren-Mercedes | 55 |
| 09 | *Kevin Magnussen (Den) | McLaren-Mercedes | 35 |
| 10 | Felipe Massa (Brz) | Williams-Mercedes | 30 |
| 11 | Sergio Pérez (Mex) | Force India-Mercedes | 28 |
| 12 | Kimi Räikkönen (Fin) | Ferrari | 19 |
| 13 | Jean-Eric Vergne (Fra) | Toro-Rosso-Renault | 9 |
| 14 | Romain Grosjean (Fra) | Lotus-Renault | 8 |
| 15 | *Daniil Kyvat (Rus) | Toro-Rosso-Renault | 6 |
| 16 | Jules Bianchi (Fra) | Marussia-Ferrari | 2 |
| 17 | Adrian Sutil (Ger) | Sauber-Ferrari | 0 |
| 18 | *Marcus Ericsson (Swe) | Caterham-Renault | 0 |
| 19 | Pastor Maldonado (Ven) | Lotus-Renault | 0 |
| 20 | Esteban Gutiérrez (Mex) | Sauber-Ferrari | 0 |
| 21 | Max Chilton (Gbr) | Marussia-Ferrari | 0 |
| 22 | Kamui Kobayashi (Jpn) | Caterham-Renault | 0 |
Constructors' Championship
| P | Team | Points |
| 01 | Mercedes | 326 (8 wins) |
| 02 | Red Bull-Renault | 168 (1 win) |
| 03 | Ferrari | 106 |
| 04 | Williams-Mercedes | 103 |
| 05 | Force India-Mercedes | 91 |
| 06 | McLaren-Mercedes | 90 |
| 07 | Toro Rosso-Renault | 15 |
| 08 | Lotus-Renault | 8 |
| 09 | Marussia-Ferrari | 2 |
| 10 | Sauber-Ferrari | 0 |
| 11 | Caterham-Renault | 0 |
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