Silverstone: German driver Nico Rosberg survived great late pressure to claim his second win of the season in Sunday's breathless and dramatic British Grand Prix at Silverstone.
Rosberg, who was 28 on Thursday, came home just seven-tenths of a second clear of second placed Australian Mark Webber of Red Bull in a furious finish to a tumultuous event. It was the Mercedes team's first victory in Britain since Stirling Moss won at Aintree in 1955 and Rosberg's second in three races and third of his career.
But the race was overshadowed by a dangerous spate of Pirelli tyre failures, including one that blew home hero Briton Lewis Hamilton's hopes of a home win in the other Mercedes car as he led from pole position.
In all, four drivers were hit by tyre blowouts while championship leading defending triple world champion German Sebastian Vettel was forced to retire his Red Bull for the first time this year after inheriting the lead.
Hamilton's tyre explosion was followed by others for Brazilian Felipe Massa of Ferrari, Frenchman Jean-Eric Vergne of Toro Rosso and Mexican Sergio Perez of McLaren in a contest that saw two Safety Car interventions.
Webber, who fell to 15th on the opening lap, fought back to finish second in his first race since announcing he was quitting Formula One at the end of the season ahead of two-time champion German Fernando Alonso in the second Ferrari and Hamilton, who stormed from the back to finish fourth despite his tyre failure.
Alonso closed the gap in the overall standings on Vettel, who has 132 points while the Spaniard is on 111 after eight races with the next race the German Grand Prix next Sunday. Kimi Raikkonen, the 2007 champion, finished fifth for Lotus.

Adrian Sutil finished seventh after being in contention for a podium finish even as Paul Di Resta fought his way to ninth after starting last on the grid in the incident-filled and dramatic British Grand Prix.
Sutil was running third after beginning the race from sixth position but lost his way in the last six laps as Mark Webber, Kimi Raikkonen, Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton all passed him.
Nevertheless, it was third consecutive double points finish for Sahara Force India (59) as it collected eight points to increase its lead over sixth-placed McLaren (37) by 22 points.
Di Resta, who had qualified impressive fifth, was forced to start last position after it was found that his car was underweight during Saturday's qualifying. The stewards though allowed him to compete from last on the grid.
Sutil moved up two places to fourth in the very first lap when he passed Daniel Ricciardo and Webber suffered a front wing damage to his Red Bull and was pushed back. Disaster struck pole sitter Hamilton in the lap eight as his Mercedes' left rear tyre deflated in lap eight, ending his victory hopes in his home race.
As a result Sebastian Vettel was now leading the race and Sutil moved up to third.
In another dramatic development, Ferrari's Felipe Massa and Toro Rosso's Jean-Eric Vergne's also suffered tyre failures, forcing deployment of safety car in lap 16. Di Resta meanwhile had worked his way to 11th and Sutil was locked in a good battle with Alonso for third position
In lap 34 both Force India drivers pitted. Sutil re-joined in seventh position and Di resta 14th. With just 10 laps left in the race, Vettel, the race and the championship leader, had to park his Red Bull after suffering a gearbox failure.
Safety car was deployed again and with seven laps to go the race began with Sutil in third position. However, the star drivers showed their mettle as they passed the German one by one to push him to seventh.