SILVERSTONE, England — Lewis Hamilton won the British Grand Prix for the first time, leading his rain-soaked home race from the fourth lap to take the lead in the Formula One drivers championship.

The McLaren driver lapped all but two cars in the field Sunday and finished more than a minute ahead of Nick Heidfeld's BMW Sauber in a race at Silverstone that was full of spinouts and near misses. Honda's Rubens Barrichello was third for his first podium in four years and Honda's first of the season.

"It is by far the best victory I've ever had," Hamilton said after waving to the 90,000 fans who gave him a standing ovation after he won by 68.5 seconds.

Hamilton, dogged by penalties and a collision in his previous two races as he slipped from first to fourth in the standings, completed an almost faultless race in very difficult conditions.

Hamilton's third victory of the season gives him 48 points. He is tied with Ferrari drivers Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen, but leads the championship chase based on his better finishes in the other races.

"The conditions were bad and as I was driving I thought, 'If I win this, it will be the best race I've ever done,' " Hamilton said. "On my last lap, I could see the crowd starting to rise to their feet, and I was just praying, praying, praying I could get the car round.

"It was so extreme out there. I was having big problems with my visor. I couldn't see a thing."

Massa spun at least five times in the race and finished last in 13th, failing to pick up a point. Raikkonen was fourth.

Hamilton and Massa each have three wins and finishes of second, third and fifth, but Hamilton has had better finishes in races where they weren't among the points. Raikkonen, the defending world champion who won this race last year, has two victories this season.

Robert Kubica is two points behind the leaders with 46. He dropped out after spinning his BMW Sauber off the circuit during the 39th lap.

Hamilton, starting fourth on the grid, provided an eventful beginning to the 60-lap race when he burst past both Red Bull's Mark Webber and Raikkonen at the beginning.

He also tried to overtake pole-starter and McLaren teammate Heikki Kovalainen on the inside of the first bend, but the Finn responded and the two McLarens almost touched.

Also on the first lap, Massa, Webber and Kazuki Nakajima went into a spin but rejoined the race. David Coulthard, in his last British GP before he retires at the end of the season, and Sebastian Vettel both slid into the same gravel area at the sharp left-hand Priory bend and were out of the race.

Seven of the 20 starters failed to finish.

Two points ahead in the drivers standings at the start of the race, Massa failed to recover from his early spin and slipped to the back of the field, more than a minute behind the leader after only 13 laps. The Brazilian finally overtook Nico Rosberg on the 17th lap and then Giancarlo Fisichella to move into 15th, but he had more trouble later in the race and was lapped twice by the leader and finished at the back.

At the front, Hamilton overtook Kovalainen on the fourth lap with a bold move going into the fast Stow right-hander, powering ahead and then timing his braking to keep the lead.

The British driver then opened up a 6-second gap only for Raikkonen to cut the lead to less than a second when they both came into the pits for the first time on lap 22. Although Hamilton changed tires, he kept the same intermediate style while Raikkonen made no change, which proved to be a mistake.

Although Hamilton left the pit line just ahead of the Finn's Ferrari, he began to pull away and opened up a lead of almost 25 seconds halfway through the race.

Struggling on a still wet track, Raikkonen slowed lap after lap. He dropped back to fourth coming out of the Luffield right-hander when Heidfeld overtook both Finns to move from fourth to second, and Kovalainen also went past Raikkonen into third.

With rain falling again, Raikkonen made another pit stop on lap 29 to change his tires to suit the conditions and came out in 11th place with little chance of becoming the first back-to-back British GP winner since Coulthard in 2000.

Hamilton stayed out of trouble and increased his lead steadily to more than a minute.

Barrichello had been in the points only twice before this season, placing sixth at Monaco and seventh in Canada.

"It's fantastic. I've never lost the belief I have in me," said the Brazilian, who has nine F1 victories in 15 years on the circuit, longest among the 20 drivers.

"I've this great feeling. It's like I'm young, I just love the sport," he said. "I just love the speed. I can't live without that. But I love the wet weather conditions. It was a perfect race."