In dramatic scenes at Silverstone, Hamilton limped home to victory after having the negotiate the final turns of the 52-lap race with a flat front tyre.

British star Hamilton had seemingly been cruising to victory on home soil before being forced to endure a tense finish. 

Incredibly, nearest rival Max Verstappen of Red Bull had pitted toward the closing stages of the race to get a run at the bonus point for fastest lap of the race, seemingly content to concede victory to Hamilton and Mercedes. 

Had he not done so, he would have surely have caught the stricken Hamilton on the last lap, but instead finished just under six seconds behind his rival. 

Hamilton's teammate Valtteri Bottas had earlier suffered similar puncture woes with 11 laps to go, sending him down the rankings from second to an eventual 11th-placed finish in a blow to his world championship ambitions.

At the flag a relieved Hamilton even had to check with his team whether he had in fact pulled off the feat of sterring the car home with only three functioning tyres.

The Twitter reaction summed up the climax to the race.