Lewis Hamilton’s dream of treating his legions of British fans to an historic debut home win at the British Grand Prix at Silverstone did not turn into a nightmare – third place on the podium ensured that – but the day was most definitely not his and the sense of anti-climax was unmistakable.

Driving a McLaren Mercedes that appeared to be outpaced by the Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen, the race winner, and struggling to manage his tyres after an erroneous set-up choice for the rear of his car, Hamilton was instead handed a lesson by two more experienced rivals in Raikkonen and Fernando Alonso, his McLaren teammate, who finished second.

But lest we forget the extraordinary benchmarks of Hamilton’s breathtaking season, this was still his ninth consecutive podium finish – something that no rookie driver has come close to and an achievement that puts him third in the all-time list for consecutive podium finishes in Formula One.

Only Alonso, with 15 successive podium finishes, and Michael Schumacher with 19, remain ahead of Hamilton in this exalted category. What is more, the young British star, whom the Italian media have quite appropriately dubbed Il Fenomeno(the phenomenon), left Silverstone last night with his World Championship lead still very much intact. At the halfway point in the season, his advantage over Alonso has been cut back by two points, but he is nevertheless 12 points to the good.

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The sight of Hamilton crawling along Hangar Straight as he punched his fists and waved to the crowd will live long in the memory

Edward Gorman

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A brilliant drive against the clock to take pole position on Saturday had promised so much and, indeed, the level of expectation around the circuit was sky high as the Red Arrows soared over the pit straight in the build-up to the start of one of the most eagerly awaited British grands prix in years.

The banners in the grandstands opposite the pits said it all: “Lewis Hamilton Living the Dream”, “Lewis Hamilton – Next World Champion”. To begin with the darling of the crowd looked to be doing exactly what was expected of him. The 22-year-old, with Raikkonen on his right, defended his position like a seasoned veteran as the cars rampaged towards the first turn at Copse.

Raikkonen was looking to steal a march on him – perhaps mindful of Hamilton’s poor start at the French Grand Prix a week ago – but the Briton slammed the door shut. When the Finn switched back to the outside as they hit the corner, Hamilton went with him and the young McLaren Mercedes driver was on his way.

But within a handful of laps the elation began to subside as it became clear that Hamilton was struggling to hold off the “Flying Finn”. Even though the Briton had a marginally lighter car, the blood-red Ferrari was filling his mirrors and, towards the end of his first stint, it was only Hamilton’s racing instinct that prevented Raikkonen getting past when they came wheel-to-wheel at Brooklands.

In a race of precious little incident that saw place-changing among the first three on the grid exclusively by virtue of pitstop strategy rather than overtaking, Hamilton then made a rare error on his first visit to the pitlane. As the McLaren, with No 2 on its bonnet was being refuelled, he thought he saw the “lollipop” man begin lifting the sign signalling his moment to leave. But he was mistaken and, as Hamilton let the clutch out, the car lurched forward with the fuel hose, and the men operating it, still attached. Quickly realising what had happened, Hamilton rammed on the brakes to stop a mistake becoming a calamity, but precious seconds had been lost.

When he emerged, he found himself eventually running third behind Alonso, who came in for a short first stop to get ahead of Raikkonen only to lose out himself after the second round of stops when the Finn banged in two hot laps and rejoined in a comfortable leading position he was to hold to the finish. Hamilton struggled all through his second and third stints and, after turning his engine down to preserve it for the European Grand Prix in Nurburgring in two week’s time, finished a distant third.

For Raikkonen, who still looks the least fit of the top-three drivers, this was a welcome second consecutive win. He drove a disciplined and error-free race and was rewarded by finally moving ahead, albeit by just one point, of Felipe Massa, his Ferrari teammate, in the drivers’ standings. Alonso can also take heart – though he did not look too happy at the end – from a largely error-free performance after a sequence of races when he has looked erratic and impulsive under pressure.

Massa, meanwhile, drove an excellent race – Schumacher-like in its statement of aggression and self-belief – after a stall on the grid forced him to start from the pitlane. The Ferrari F2007 is a far superior machine to the cars at the back of the grid and some in the mid-field but Massa did not waste its potency and did well to finish with four points for fifth place.

The highlight of the closing stages was his battle with Robert Kubica, the BMW Sauber driver, who stubbornly fought him off to take his second consecutive fourth place. The best of the other British drivers was Jenson Button on a one-stop strategy in a lacklustre Honda “Earth Car” which he had earlier managed to get to only eighteenth on the grid. Battling poor rear grip and too much understeer, Button did well to finish tenth, a place ahead of his fellow Briton David Coulthard. Anthony Davidson, who lives near to the circuit, retired on lap 35 with a mechanical problem.