Jack Leslie F1: 2015 British Grand Prix In Pictures

Silverstone is known as the 'home of British motorsport', and the track put in a thrilling show last weekend.

Lewis Hamilton picked up an emotional third British Grand Prix victory in tricky conditions, with Nico Rosberg and Sebastian Vettel second and third. Here is the race weekend in pictures.

All of the images featured in this piece are courtesy of Octane Photographic. See more of their work here.

Friday

Progress continued to be made at Manor. The team showed off a tweaked livery on Friday, with a new sponsor, and its first upgrades of the season.

Nico Rosberg kicked off his weekend by setting the pace in first practice at Silverstone, despite suffering a loss of hydraulic pressure.

Three test/reserve drivers took part in FP1 - Jolyon Palmer replaced Romain Grosjean at Lotus, Susie Wolff was in for Valtteri Bottas at Williams and Raffaele Marciello competed for Sauber in place of Marcus Ericsson.

Second practice was a tough session for Grosjean. He beached his Lotus in the Luffield gravel early on and had to help clean his car, before returning to the track.

McLaren's struggles continued, with Fernando Alonso losing track time after an off-track excursion and Jenson Button struggling for pace.

Rosberg returned to the top of the timesheets in FP2 and had the advantage heading into Saturday.

Saturday

Hamilton bounced back by putting in the quickest lap time in practice three, on the medium tyre.

Rosberg was second, but suffered a gearbox problem, which limited his running in the second half of the session.

Felipe Nasr was the first driver to be eliminated from Q1. He was joined by Alonso, Button, Will Stevens and Roberto Merhi.

Sergio Perez was disappointed to miss out on Q3 and qualified 11th. Romain Grosjean, Max Verstappen, Pastor Maldonado and Ericsson joined him in the drop-zone.

Daniil Kvyat was the lead Red Bull in qualifying, after Daniel Ricciardo ran wide and had his best time deleted. Kvyat was seventh, ahead of Carlos Sainz Jr, Nico Hulkenberg and his team-mate.

Both Hamilton and Rosberg failed to improve on their last laps, giving the two-time world champion pole position. Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas locked out row two, with Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel completing the top six.

Sunday

The weather was fine and dry for the start of the race, but there were dark clouds threatening to spice things up in the distance.

Just 19 drivers took the start, after a gearbox problem on his way to the grid meant Felipe Nasr failed to race.

Strong starts for Massa and Bottas saw the Williams duo lead into Turn 1, before Hamilton reclaimed second place a few corners later.

The Safety Car was deployed for an incident at Turn 3, and when the race resumed, Hamilton went off trying to pass Massa and lost out to Bottas.

The two Williams drivers got very close, and were eventually told that they could battle. However, both dropped behind Hamilton at the first stops and lost further places when the rain arrived.

A great call later in the race to switch to intermediates helped Hamilton to extend his lead, while Vettel displaced Massa and Bottas.

There were some great battles in the midfield pack throughout the race, as well as some brilliant slides, spins and saves when the wet weather swept over Silverstone.

Vettel moved up to third in the wet conditions to take third, despite falling to eighth on lap one.

Rosberg was second, some way off Hamilton. He closed in on him before the switch to intermediates but didn't have the pace to make up the gap.

It was an emotional third home win for Hamilton, in front of packed and enthusiastic crowds.

Hamilton extended his lead in the championship, with the next race taking place at the Hungaroring in Hungary later this month.

6 July 2015

2015 British Grand Prix In Pictures

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