Hamilton questions Mercedes strategy despite P2 finish

Lewis Hamilton produced one of the drives of his life to finish in second place at the British Grand Prix after being relegated to almost last after a first lap collision with Kimi Raikkonen.

Polesitter Hamilton was looking for his fifth win in a row at Silverstone but lost two places on the first lap to race winner Sebastian Vettel and team mate Valtteri Bottas.

Raikkonen locked up on the way into turn three and ran into the right rear of Hamilton, sending him into a spin, re-joining the track ahead of only Sergio Perez, who spun at turn one, and Brendon Hartley, who didn’t start the race.

The recovery started immediately for Hamilton, who scythed through the field and held off a late charge from Raikkonen, who was on fresher tyres to finish second.

Despite the brilliant drive, Hamilton seemed downbeat when interviewed by Martin Brundle from Sky Sports: “This is the greatest race of the year and this is the greatest crowd and I’m sorry I wasn’t able to bring it home for you today.

“Thank you for all your support, it’s you guys who helped me get through today, so we take it on the chin and we keep pushing hard, believe me I will not give up, I will not give up.

“My team did an amazing job this weekend and we got just so much support, there’s so much pressure for us all.”

Hamilton also seemed to question his team’s strategy to leave him out on the one-stop after Ferrari and Red Bull called both their drivers in for a second stop after Marcus Ericsson’s crash brought the safety car out with 20 laps to go.

He said: “Interesting tactics I would say from their [the team] side, but we’ll do what we can to fight and improve in the next races, but I’m just so grateful for all this support we had here, this is the best Grand Prix we’ve had all year, just look at the crowd, it’s amazing.”