F1 title chase thrown wide open

Lewis Hamilton's runaway victory at a rain-soaked Silverstone has set up an even tighter battle for the Formula One drivers' championship as it goes into the second half of the season.

McLaren's Hamilton joins Ferrari drivers Kimi Räikkönen of Finland and Felipe Massa of Brazil on 48 points with nine of the 18 races remaining following an impressive British Grand Prix triumph. Only two points further back is the BMW Sauber driver Robert Kubica of Poland, with his team-mate Nick Heidfeld of Germany also closing the gap at 10 points further back after finishing second at Silverstone.

It was the third grand prix win of the season for Hamilton who is now technically leading the championship as a result of head-to-head results. He regards Sunday's win as the best yet of his seven F1 career victories in only his second season at the top level.

Track legend Sir Jackie Stewart led the praise for the 23-year-old McLaren-Mercedes driver's dominant performance in the rain which saw him come home a massive 68 seconds ahead of second-placed Heidfeld.

"I couldn't say it was the greatest drive ever, but it is right up there with the likes of Ayrton Senna. It will be one of the races we talk about for years," he said.

Hamilton joins Stewart as one of 12 British drivers to win a home grand prix, with Scottish driver David Coulthard the last in 2000. He is the first Englishman to win since Johnny Herbert in 1995.

The British press were full of praise for Hamilton on Monday, with the Daily Mail saying he made driving in treacherous conditions "as easy as a sunny Sunday spin with a picnic in the boot." 

The Guardian said Hamilton "joins the greats in a drive of genius", winning with "a drive of magisterial virtuosity" in severe conditions.

"Yesterday he raced on the edge of his prodigious talent, thrilling the rain-soaked crowd with a masterful display of wet-weather driving," it wrote.

The Times said Hamilton "drove imperiously on his home soil and was, in every sense, in a class of his own among motor racing's elite." 

In France, Le Parisien said Hamilton's drive "recalled the rain masters Senna and Schumacher and is a sign of the greats." 

Italian media bemoaned Ferrari's poor race in which Massa finished last, while reigning world champion Räikkönen came fourth.

"Ferrari limited the damage with Räikkönen's fourth place, however with a disaster for Massa who was last," La Stampa wrote.

Hamilton's victory follows two races in Canada and France in which he had finished out of the points after committing errors. It had led to criticism that he had been undertaking too much promotional and public relations work. He admitted he had been under pressure and was seeking mainly to get back into the points.

"The last couple of weeks I've been flat out with working very hard, just a lot of travelling, many different things and different emotions building," he said. "My mind's always been right - I just had a lot on my plate, really. It's nothing too serious, just life in general."

The championship is now wide open as the teams look ahead to the German Grand Prix at Hockenheim on 20 July, with Hamilton for one refusing to make any predictions.

"It's a work in progress, we're doing a good job, and I've just got to keep building on it. We're in a good place now, but there's a lot of competition," he said.