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F1 British GP: Hamilton hails 'perfect weekend' for Mercedes at Silverstone

Lewis Hamilton revelled in a "perfect weekend" for Mercedes at Silverstone after heading up a one-two finish in the British Grand Prix, leading home team-mate Valtteri Bottas.

Hamilton went lights-to-flag at Silverstone en route to his fifth victory on home soil, and was joined on the podium by Bottas after the Finn benefitted from late trouble for both Ferrari drivers.

Front-left tyre failures for Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen allowed Bottas to complete a remarkable fightback from P9 on the grid after a penalty to second, giving Mercedes a maximum score for the Silverstone weekend.

"I was very, very fortunate firstly that the team did an exceptional job this weekend. The car felt really great," Hamilton said.

"I'm so proud of everyone at the factory. Valtteri did an exceptional job coming back from all that way. A perfect weekend for us as a team.

"I got a good start and then after that I was really able to manage the gap to Kimi. It just bit by bit extended. We were planning on stopping on Lap 19 or something like that, so I was able to extend it by quite a bit.

"And then at the end I had a decent gap so it was just about managing it, a 12-14 second gap to Kimi. I could see on those TV screens at a few places around the track, I got to see a bit of the race."

Hamilton was wary in the closing stages after seeing Vettel and Raikkonen hit trouble, having also felt concerned about his tyres.

"I heard at the end that there were some tyre blowouts," Hamilton said. "I had some graining and some vibration on mine, so the last couple of laps I took it easy as I knew the others had trouble.

"I could have kept going, I felt like I could keep going. I think we had the legs this weekend." 

Zdroj: crash.net