Lewis Hamilton sealed his image as the favorite of British fans by winning the British Grad Prix at Silverstone on July 6 2008.

It was a superb win by the McLaren driver that brought hundreds of thousands British supporters to ecstasy. Hamilton is the first British driver to win in front of a home crowd since Johnny Herbert in 1995.

The changing weather made the race a real thriller and forced all drivers to show their best, but Hamilton out-classed everyone. From the selection of the tyres to the right team-strategy and the work of mechanics, everything worked well for Hamilton's win.

He finished the race more than a minute ahead of runner-up Nick Heidfeld from BMW and third-place Rubens Barrichello from Honda, making the day a memorable event for the young Brit.

From the very beginning, Hamilton showed that winning was the only option for him. On July 5, he qualified only for the fourth position on the grid. A day later, however, he had a superb start showing that he had learned his lessons from previous races when he was often criticised for lack of concentration.

This time it was nothing like that. His start was superb and it took Hamilton just five laps to take the lead from team-mate Heikki Kovalainen.

From then on, it was all about resisting the pressure from reigning world champion, Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen.

This was when Hamilton's tactics were put to a test. On lap 21, both Hamilton and Raikkonen changed their tyres. Hamilton decided to go with a fresh set of intermediate wet-weather tyres, while Ferrari gave Raikkonen dry-weather tyres.

Just a lap later McLaren's choice paid off when rain started to give Hamilton the advantage he needed over Raikkonen. It allowed Hamilton to gather an impressive 21.8 seconds advantage in just five laps over the fast Ferrari, which struggled with the lack of grip on the track.

This was when it all went wrong for Raikkonen who lost his second place to Kovalainen. For Hamilton, on the other hand, the race could have been over at that moment because he was unreachable.

The rain continued to cause problems for all other drivers, but not for Hamilton, who delivered his third win for the season in front of the cheering crowd.

Hamilton finished the race in one hour, 39 minutes and 09.440 seconds, a minute and eight seconds ahead of Heidfeld and an entire lap ahead of Raikkonen, who came in fourth.

Hamilton's win led to a situation where the top three drivers in the rankings share the same result of 48 points. Hamilton is first, followed by the two Ferrari drivers Felipe Massa and Raikkonen. BMW's Robert Kubica is fourth with 46 points, followed by his teammate Nick Heidfeld on 36 points.

The next race is the German Grad Prix on Hockenheimring circuit on July 20.