Hamilton: I was praying I could get the car to the finish

Lewis Hamilton admitted he was praying he would be able to complete the race after surviving a last-lap puncture at the British Grand Prix.

Hamilton secured his third consecutive victory of 2020 in the most dramatic fashion possible, completing the final lap with a deflated left-front Pirelli.

Hamilton had been warned not to push after his Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas had suffered a similar tyre failure two laps earlier, but was able to hold off a closing Max Verstappen to land victory.

He said post-race: "Valtteri and I, I mean, Valtteri was really pushing very hard and I was doing some management of the tyre, he looked like he wasn't doing any, so when I heard that his tyre went, I was just looking at mine and everything seemed fine.

"The car was still turning no problem so I was thinking maybe it's okay. Those last few laps I started to back off and then just down the straight it deflated. I just noticed the shape just shift a little bit and that was definitely just a heart in the mouth feeling because I wasn't sure if it had gone down and when I hit the brakes I could see the tyre was falling off the rim.

"Just driving it, trying to keep the speed up, because sometimes it will take off and brake the wings. I was just praying to try and get it round and not be too slow.

"I nearly didn't get round the last two corners but thank God we did."

He added: "I've definitely never experienced anything like that on the last lap and my heart probably nearly stopped."

Before the late drama, Hamilton had been able to maintain a comfortable gap to Bottas while the two were over a quarter of a minute clear of Max Verstappen.

Hamilton joked: "Up until that last lap everything was relatively smooth sailing. The tyres felt great."

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