Lewis Hamilton has labelle♌d his Bri🃏tish Grand Prix fightback as a “huge” result for Mercedes, insisting he will not give up in the intense 2018 Formula 1 title fight.

Hamilton dropped to 18th on the opening lap at Silverstone after being turned arouꦿnd by Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen following a sluggish getaway, but he pulled off a remarkable recoveﷺry charge to finish second behind Sebastian Vettel. 

The result limited the damage to the Briton’s championship bid for a fifth world title, meaning he is now only eight points behind🌌 Vettel in the driv🌼ers’ standings heading to Germany. 

"We're in a tough battle this year and it's the most intense battle that I think we've probably all had," Hamilton said. “I'm very, very grateful that the car was still in one piece after the first turn three i𒆙ncident.

"Whilst I appeared, at the beginning, to have lost something on the rear end, when I looked at the car afterwards it see♈ms to be OK and it 🌠was driving better and better throughout the race, so that was a great thing.

“Honestly, to get back to secon♋d it's huge for us. I will definitely take it, of course, and I'm happy with the drive that I did.”

When asked if he felt s🌊econd place was still a realistic target once he had dropped to the back, Hamilton replied: "Yes. I had to have that mentality. I was last and I still believed I could win. I had to keep that mentality to get back to where I was.

“We’ll take it on the chin and keep pushing hard, because believe me I will not give up. I will not give u♓p.”

Hamilton was aided in his run to second by two Safety Car periods as M🌊ercedes decided to keep both drivers out while both Ferrari drivers pitted. 

It meant Bottas held track position, but on older tyres he was was vulnerable, ultimately losing out to Vettel, Hamilton and Raikkonen♛ after a valiant defence as he ended up fourth. 

Merce📖des team boss Toto Wolff def🎉ended the strategy call, insisting: "I think it was absolutely the right decision to do.

"There was 15 or 16 laps to the end, we were on quite fr🍰esh mediums that would last and gaining track p💫osition was the important one for us.

"Doing the opposite [to Ferrari] was the choice we went for and in the end it brought us a P2 and P4. Considering how the race started we n𒉰eed to accept the result as an OK outcome, as damage limitation.

“Even without the inciden🗹t in Lap 1, we don’t know whether we would have won the race but I believe that Lewis and the car had the pace. We would have had a better chance of competing for the win, then it was made impossible. This is the feeling that remains.”