British GP: Mercedes target Lewis Hamilton F1 title Silverstone 'fightback'

Mercedes have pledged to get Lewis Hamilton’s title challenge back on track at Sunday’s British Grand Prix after the Briton left Austria with a bigger deficit to make up to Sebastian Vettel in the title race.

A gearbox problem saw Hamilton have to battle back from eighth on the grid to finish fourth, as team-mate Valtteri Bottas won the race ahead of Vettel.

The result, coming a race after a headrest problem cost Hamilton victory in Azerbaijan, leaves him 20 points behind Vettel.

Team boss Toto Wolff said: "We have let him down with the head rest and the gearbox and now it is about time to fight back and hopefully that is going to happen at Silverstone."

Like Wolff, Hamilton is hopeful that Silverstone can act as a turnaround in fortunes.

“It will be nice to race in front of a home crowd and to start with a clean slate,” he said.

“I can only take heart from the final part of the race [in which he came close to a podium finish] and move on.”