Rosberg claims podium at British Grand Prix that was filled with tyre issues

German driver Nico Rosberg beat crowd favourites like Mark Webber, Sebastian Vettel, and even team mate Lewis Hamilton to emerge as the surprise winner of the British Grand Prix that had its fair share of excitement mostly from exploding Pirelli tyres.

Rosberg's second victory for the year and his third in his career overall was easily handed to him, with up to four drivers in the grid suffering identical left-rear tyre failures - starting with Lewis Hamilton.

It was a textbook start from Lewis who led from pole with Vettel jumping to second. A terrible start from Webber caused his to drop down the grid into 15^th and eventually a contact with Romain Grosjean - while Felipe catapulted from 11^th to 5^th on the grid.

It could have been Hamilton's race until a spectacular yet dangerous - left-rear tyre delamination caused it to burst and shred into pieces on the eight lap and carefully nursed his three wheeled car back to the pits. If it was any consolation, he didn't suffer alone.

Just two laps later, Felipe Massa suffered an identical failure around the kerbs of the Wellington Straight, forcing him to pit. That was followed by Jean-Eric Verge's Toro Rosso on Lap 15 along the Hangar Straight - putting the Frenchman out of the race.

The Safety Car was deployed to allow marshals to sweep the track for debris and normal racing resumed on from the 22^nd lap - with Vettel leading from Nico Rosberg.

With fourteen laps remaining to the dance of the chequered flags, Rosberg began closing in on Vettel, but later found out he need not have to put up a fight, with the defending champion suddenly slowing down at the exit of Stowe on Lap 41 after suffering a gearbox failure - to applause from the audience.

It seems the lack of Vettel on the track added boost to the drivers and their cars as much 'racing' occurred from here on. At the restart on the 45^th lap, Rosberg led Raikkonen, Adrian Sutil in the Force India, Daniel Ricciardo and Mark Webber. With fresher set of rubber, Webber managed to overtake Riccardo and Sutil. Alonso pulled into the slipstream of Sergio Perez - right before the left rear tyre of the McLaren burst - which Alonso managed to avoid in time.

A defenceless Raikkonen was overtaken by Webber as Alonso and Hamilton both passed Ricciardo. The fast charging Spaniard took the last podium spot and more importantly earned 15 points by passing Raikkonen in the DRS zone.

With the number of laps run out, Rosberg claimed victory - by a 0.7 second window - from Webber who finished ahead of a late charging Alonso and a valiant Hamilton. Raikkonen only managed a best of fifth with Massa finishing sixth. It was yet another disappointing race for McLaren with Jenson Button finishing 12^th and Sergio Perez retiring from the race altogether.