Hamilton pounces on Vettel's Hockenheim crash to win

Lewis Hamilton emerged from a brilliant, chaotic German Grand Prix with a victory and the championship lead after Sebastian Vettel crashed out of his home race as rain brought a manic edge to Hockenheim. Valtteri Bottas followed Hamilton home in second after Mercedes deployed team orders, ensuring Hamilton leaves Germany 17 points clear of Vettel in the standings.

Hamilton's win was only confirmed two and a half hours after he crossed the line - stewards seeing fit to reprimand him for crossing te pit lane to remain on-track, avoiding a costly time penalty.

Vettel had looked set for a first win at his local Hockenheimring circuit, but skated off a wet track late on to put Hamilton into position to take his fourth win of 2018 and earn the Brit a slice of revenge, having been beaten by Vettel on home turf last time out at Silverstone.

Starting from 14th on the grid after a hydraulic failure in qualifying, Hamilton's race went from damage limitation to a potential turning point in the 2018 championship.

Vettel had dominated from the front, but his race began to unfurl after Raikkonen was pitted early and emerged ahead of his team-mate once the pitstops were completed.

Vettel spent costly laps behind his team-mate, who was eventually ordered to pull aside.

Soon after the rain that had threatened much of the weekend arrived, but not at full force, prompting a string of confused strategy calls - at one point all five compounds of tyres were on the race-track.

Mercedes' decision to keep Hamilton out on ulltrasofts paid the ultimate dividend, piling pressure on those ahead of him, perhaps playing a role in Vettel slithering off the track and into the barriers.

Raikkonen was at the front of the field when the safety car was deployed, but Ferrari pitted him, putting Hamilton ahead for the first time and Mercedes ordered a compliant Bottas to back off, giving the reigning champion his clearest lead in the standings of 2018 so far.