Lewis Hamilton has closed the gap to his team-mate in the championship standings after winning in Silverstone and benefitting from Rosberg's retirement. Although the German led for half the race a gearbox problem forced him to retire from a race for the first time this season.

Although he only started from sixth place Hamilton went on to win his home grand prix and cut Rosberg's lead in the world championship standings to just four points.

Things were looking good to Rosberg throught the first half of the race. The German secured the lead starting from pole, with Vettel's slow start pulling him down to fourth behind the McLaren of Button and Magnussen. Hamilton also did good moving up to fourth in the first laps overtaking Hulkenberg and then Vettel.

However the race start was short as with just five turns Kimi Raikonnen slammed his Ferrari heavily on the Wellington Straight and forced the race interruption. In the incident Felipe Massa's Williams also got involved while trying to avoid the action and retired in the box with suspension damage.

When the race finally resumed Rosberg flew away, while Hamilton was working on overtaking the McLarens, which he did quickly in two consecutive laps, for the thrill of the homecrowd.

With a four-second lead by then Rosberg seemed safe in his lead as the first pitstop was closing down. Hamilton went to attack mode opting for a different strategy from his team-mate, with a longer run on medium-tires. However strategy wasn't even necessary as gearbox problems forced the German to retire short after his first visit to the pitstops.

Hamilton then had a clear way to victory finishing with a 30 second lead over Williams' Valteri Bottas who made a superb race climbing from 14th place up to second. Ricciardo recovered from eighth up to third, followed by Button. In a late fight between old rivals Vettel and Alonso decided between each other fifht place, with the four-time world champion winning the battle at the end.

Magnussen wasn't strong enough to hold position from Vettel and Alonso and dropped to seventh with his one-stop strategy.

Nico Hulkenberg handed four more points to Force India, while Toro Rosso who has been very inconsistant throughout the season managed to put both its drivers in the points in ninth and tenth.

Check here the Drivers and Manufacturers World Championship standings.