Nico Rosberg took his second win of the season at a British Grand Prix defined by a catalogue of tyre failures a late-race gearbox problem that dumped championship leader Sebastian Vettel of the race while leading comfortably.

At the start Rosberg, who had qualified on the front row behind team-mate Lewis Hamilton, lost position to Vettel and dropped to third place.

Lewis Hamilton delivered a superb final lap in qualifying at Silverstone to eclipse team-mate Nico Rosberg by four tenths of a second and claim his second career British Grand Prix pole position.

Red Bull Racing’s Sebastian Vettel, meanwhile, took third place, ahead of team-mate Mark Webber at the end of a session that had always been a battle between the Anglo-Austrian and Anglo-German teams.