During Saturday's qualifying session, Hamilton achieved the 55th pole position of his career to start from the front of the grid, ahead of Rosberg and Max Verstappen.

Hamilton was able to convert his pole position into a third straight victory at the British Grand Prix, leading home Rosberg and Verstappen in changing conditions.

Ferrari drivers Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Räikkönen were third and fourth respectively, with 96 points each, ahead of Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo with 88.

Santino Ferrucci and Nikita Mazepin made their first appearances for Haas and Force India respectively, while Pierre Gasly drove for Red Bull Racing and Charles Leclerc for Ferrari.

[16] Sauber did however introduce their first updates of the season to their car during free practice at the event, with Marcus Ericsson doing a trial run with a new rear wing.

Sauber did however receive the benefit of Ferrari's updated version of their power unit, used by the works team since the Canadian Grand Prix.

[21] Lewis Hamilton was fastest in the first practice session on Friday morning, setting a time of 1:31.654, less than a tenth of a second ahead of teammate Nico Rosberg.

After setting their fast times, the Mercedes drivers went on to complete long stints to test race performance on the harder tyre compounds.

[22] Vettel did a test with an updated version of Ferrari's "halo"-system designed to improve the protection of the driver's head inside the cockpit.

[24] Hamilton was again fastest in the second practice on Friday afternoon, while Rosberg was unable to partake due to a water leak on his car.

While Fernando Alonso placed a good sixth, teammate Jenson Button had to take to the garage for repairs twice, before coming out on track again late in the session, eventually setting the ninth fastest time.

With the car cleared from the track, lengthy repair work at the barriers followed, leaving just five minutes of running when practice was restarted.

Even though he slowed down in the middle sector of the lap to avoid making the same mistake again, he recorded a time just short of his earlier effort to achieve the 55th pole position of his career.

On lap 16, Sebastian Vettel was the first driver to make the switch to slick tyres, while Verstappen moved ahead of Rosberg into second position.

Meanwhile, Vettel was judged to have forced Felipe Massa off the track when he overtook him for eighth place, handing him a five-second time penalty.

[36] His team told him to avoid using seventh gear,[37] following which Rosberg was able to consolidate his slim lead over Verstappen, which had initially come down due to his problem.

[38] He was the first driver to win the British Grand Prix three times in a row and also became the record winner at the Silverstone circuit, with four victories.

[40] On the podium, Nico Rosberg was booed by the home crowd, mirroring a similar incident towards Hamilton at the previous race in Austria.

"[42] During the interviews at the podium ceremony, conducted by former Formula One driver Mark Webber, Hamilton had expressed his delight at the fact that the weather had made the race more difficult.

Rosberg spoke of "an exciting race" against Verstappen and highlighted his "very critical problem" with his gearbox, but stressed that he felt confident that the instructions he received from his team to fix it were within the rules.

[43] However, the stewards – led by former driver Nigel Mansell – did not share his view and applied a ten-second time penalty for what they felt were instructions not compliant with the sporting regulations, demoting Rosberg to third place.