Lewis Hamilton says there was no way Felipe Massa was taking fourth place away from him after a sterling drive from tenth on the grid.
The Briton managed to get up to second at one point before falling to third during his second stop for tyres. The situation worsened when he was told to save fuel by the McLaren pitwall.
That left the 2008-champion lapping slower to ensure he made the checkered flag but saw him lose third to Mark Webber and, at one point, fourth.
On the very last lap, Massa dived up outside and managed to get his nose ahead before the two made minor contact allowing Hamilton to regain the position as the two crossed the line just 0.024s apart.
“That’s as close as it is going to get. It was crazy,” Hamilton said after the race. “The team did a fantastic job with all the pitstops and today, coming here knowing the support we had, I’ve never known so many people here at Silverstone.
“Unfortunately at the end, with 21 laps to the end or something, I had to save fuel, massively. So I had to give Webber the position and then the last lap they said ‘okay, now you can push’ and I was like ‘oh, thanks’ after I’ve let him [Massa] catch me up. But I was not giving him that position, no way,” urged Hamilton.
Hamilton then joked that he expected to be called to the stewards office after the incident between the two.
“I’ve got like a platinum card for the stewards, so I expect to be there! I’m actually going straight from here to the stewards – just sit there and wait.”
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