by Our Sports Desk

LEWIS HAMILTON praised his own pit-stop calls as he completed a hat-trick of home victories by winning an entertaining British Grand Prix.

The reigning world champion recovered from another poor start to seal a 38th career win and remain on course to equal his hero Ayrton Senna’s haul of three championships.

The 52-lap corker was proof that Formula One is alive and kicking with periods of rain, an impressive supporting act from Williams and a couple of first-lap shunts.

Hamilton timed both of his pit-stops perfectly, firstly leap-frogging the fast-starting Williams pair of Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas — who had jumped the Mercedes duo from the start — and then putting on the intermediate tyres as the heaviest of the rain came, thus placating a push from teammate Nico Rosberg.

“The race was very very tough,” he said.

“It was very slippery off the start but it made it more exciting when I was chasing down the Williams and it was very hard to get close and overtake.

“I got close enough on the first pit stop and I came out ahead and then the rain came and I lost temperature on the front tyres. For the first time in my F1 career I made the perfectly right choice in terms of, I’m coming in now. So I feel extremely happy about that.”

Mercedes chief Toto Wolff also hailed his driver’s decision making.

“It was Lewis’s call to come in,” he said.

“We gave him the option. He did it at the perfect time and that gave him the edge.”

Championship leader Hamilton has won here twice in the past, both of which came in his previous title-winning seasons, and he moved 17 points clear of Rosberg — who spent a large part of the race stuck in fourth place.

In contrast, Jenson Button’s afternoon was over within a minute — he had very little chance of picking up his first-ever Silverstone podium but the McLaren man would have still been bitterly disappointed to not even make it half-way through the opening lap.

The 2009 world champion was hit by team-mate Fernando Alonso as the Spaniard avoided an incident involving the two Lotus cars of Pastor Maldonado and Romain Grosjean.