At the end of the Austrian Grand Prix, a fortnight ago, Nico Rosberg was leading the Drivers' Championship a decent 29 points ahead of team mate, Lewis Hamilton. Yet thanks to Lewis' brilliant and composed drive from sixth and Rosberg's retirement mid-race at the British Grand Prix at Silverstone yesterday, the pair are just separated by four points - 'resetting' the sprint to top of the board wide open once again.

An important home turf victory by Hamilton saw the Brit wiping away the wide margin Rosberg had built from the start of the season coming into the race.

Rosberg made a clean start from pole while Button jumped ahead of Vettel. A quick Hamilton traded two places and was up to fourth despite contact with Vettel on the exit of Village (Turn 3).

However, the charge was soon halted when the race was red flagged, for nearly an hour, after an immense accident on the first lap involving Kimi Raikkonen in the Ferrari and his former team mate Felipe Massa.

Raikkonen ran wide coming out of Aintree (Turn 5) and as he rejoined on the Wellington Straight, the rear of his Ferrari stepped out and threw him into the barriers, recording a colossal 47G on impact. He slid back across the track and hit Massa, who managed his best in avoiding the Ferrari. Both drivers, miraculously escaped without any major injury although Raikkonen was assessed at the medical centre for his ankle and hip.

Repair works to the barrier resulted in a lengthy stop and a chance for teams to assess their own battle scars and alter strategy ahead of the restart behind the safety car.

By lap five, after the restart, Hamilton rose to second place behind Rosberg and made every effort to hunt the other silver arrow and a few laps later Rosberg started complaining of gearbox issues.

However, Hamilton wasn't willing to rely on issues for Rosberg and adopted a different strategy, staying on track on degrading mediums while Rosberg took advantage of the extra pace from his fresh rubber.

Hamilton eventually pitted on lap 24 and opted for hard tyres and continued chasing his team mate, narrowing the difference between the cars at the front. Rosberg's gearbox finally gave up coming out of The Loop (Turn 4) on lap 29 and Hamilton cruised past to take the lead, with a comfortable buffer built over Bottas in second. From that point onwards it was easy running.

Besides the first lap horror and the retirement from Rosberg, much of the racing entertainment was provided by Sebastian Vettel and Fernando Alonso in the Red Bull and Ferrari respectively. Vettel crossed the dance of the chequered flags at fifth after an epic ten lap 'dogfight' with the Spaniard that climaxed with a thrilling high-speed pass at Copse corner.

Kevin Magnussen in the other McLaren finished a decent seventh to score valuable points ahead of Nico Hulkenberg in the Force India and the both the Toro Rosso's.

At the end of the British Grand Prix, Hamilton, with 161 points, is now four points shy of Rosberg in the drivers' standings, effectively resetting the championship battle for the second half of the season. Mercedes continue to dominate the Constructors' Championships with 326 points, ahead of Red Bull and Ferrari with 168 and 106 points respectively.