Hamilton, who extends his record of victories at his home Grand Prix to seven, takes another step towards a seventh world title, increasing his overall advantage.

Finnish teammate Valtteri Bottas came to this Grand Prix with five points over the second, who also suffered a flat tire at the end of the race at Silverstone and was unable to score points this time, finishing just eleventh.

Before the exciting finale, the race had been relatively bland, with the two Mercedes dominating the lead over their rivals. But both suffering flat tires in the final laps changed the dynamics of the Grand Prix.

Until that last lap, everything was going well. But when I heard that Valtteri had a flat tire I looked at my tires and everything seemed to be fine, but suddenly I punctured. I tried to keep speed without breaking the tire, said Hamilton after crossing the finish line.

Verstappen surely let the victory slip by stopping on the penultimate lap to put on new tires, which at least allowed him to break a lap record and get an extra point for signing the fastest lap.

But that stop cost him a few seconds that would have predictably allowed him to beat Hamilton before the end.

"I am very happy to have finished second," said the young Dutchman.

Monegasque Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) inherited third place unexpectedly, after having run almost the entire race in provisional fourth place.

The Spanish Carlos Sainz Jr (McLaren), who started seventh and seemed to be able to finish fourth, punctured on the unpredictable last lap and finished outside the scoring zone, in fourteenth place.