Lewis Hamilton answered his critics and got his title campaign back on track with a superb British Grand Prix win.
The McLaren driver mastered tricky conditions, and his team made the right tactical calls, as all his main title rivals had a day to forget.
Hamilton is now tied on points at the top of the championship with Ferrari drivers Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa, who finished fourth and 13th.
Nick Heidfeld took second for BMW ahead of Rubens Barrichello's Honda.
Hamilton's victory was possibly the best race of his short career, and it was a much-needed fillip after he had failed to score points in the previous two races.
The Englishman had been under pressure heading to Silverstone, and looked to be feeling it when he made mistakes on his qualifying laps to end up only fourth on the grid.
"It is definitely by far the best victory I've ever had," Hamilton said.
"It was one of the toughest races I've ever done. This would definitely go down as the best race I've ever won - not only because it was history and it was home ground but because I drove one of the best races I ever did.
"I want to dedicate this one to my family because as you can see I've had some troubles over the last couple of weeks and it's been really tough. But as always your family are there when you need them."
The rain gave him a chance to showcase his superlative natural talent, and he grabbed it with both hands.
Hamilton made a superb start from his fourth place on the grid and took the lead from team-mate Heikki Kovalainen on lap five.
He quickly pulled out an advantage, but was soon back under pressure from Raikkonen, who passed Kovalainen when the McLaren spun on lap 10 and began to eat into Hamilton's lead.
The decisive moment of the race came on lap 21, when Hamilton and Raikkonen came in for their first fuel and tyre stops. McLaren changed Hamilton's intermediate wet-weather tyres for fresh ones, while Ferrari - gambling it would stay dry - left Raikkonen's used set on.
Within a lap, though, it had started to rain again, and Raikkonen suddenly started struggling with a catastrophic lack of grip.
Hamilton, knowing he could effectively win the race there and then, piled on the pressure, and by lap 26 was 21.8 seconds ahead of Raikkonen, who then lost his second place to Kovalainen.
Already, it was clear that Hamilton pretty much had the race under control.
The weather remained difficult to predict, though, and McLaren had another tough call to make when Hamilton came in for his second pit stop on lap 38, with the rain beginning to come down much harder.
They fitted Hamilton with a new set of intermediates - even though conditions were bad enough for Honda to call both its drivers in and fit them with "extreme" wets in what would turn out to be a successful attempt to conjure an unexpected good result.
The conditions were treacherous - a number of drivers spun off at this stage of the race, including Jenson Button's Honda - but Hamilton continued on his serene way, by now almost a minute ahead of Heidfeld.
"It was so extreme out there, probably as extreme in some cases as Fuji last year," Hamilton said. Hamilton was out on his own for much of the race
"Obviously there wasn't as much rain. I was having big problems with my visor, I couldn't see a thing, especially the right side. I was having to lift my visor up and clean it every lap, especially when it was starting to rain."
BBC Sport at Silverstone
Lewis Hamilton answered his critics and got his title campaign back on track with a superb British Grand Prix win.
The McLaren driver mastered tricky conditions, and his team made the right tactical calls, as all his main title rivals had a day to forget.
Hamilton is now tied on points at the top of the championship with Ferrari drivers Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa, who finished fourth and 13th.
Nick Heidfeld took second for BMW ahead of Rubens Barrichello's Honda.
Hamilton's victory was possibly the best race of his short career, and it was a much-needed fillip after he had failed to score points in the previous two races.
The Englishman had been under pressure heading to Silverstone, and looked to be feeling it when he made mistakes on his qualifying laps to end up only fourth on the grid.
"It is definitely by far the best victory I've ever had," Hamilton said.
"It was one of the toughest races I've ever done. This would definitely go down as the best race I've ever won - not only because it was history and it was home ground but because I drove one of the best races I ever did.
"I want to dedicate this one to my family because as you can see I've had some troubles over the last couple of weeks and it's been really tough. But as always your family are there when you need them."
The rain gave him a chance to showcase his superlative natural talent, and he grabbed it with both hands.
Hamilton made a superb start from his fourth place on the grid and took the lead from team-mate Heikki Kovalainen on lap five.
He quickly pulled out an advantage, but was soon back under pressure from Raikkonen, who passed Kovalainen when the McLaren spun on lap 10 and began to eat into Hamilton's lead.
The decisive moment of the race came on lap 21, when Hamilton and Raikkonen came in for their first fuel and tyre stops.
McLaren changed Hamilton's intermediate wet-weather tyres for fresh ones, while Ferrari - gambling it would stay dry - left Raikkonen's used set on.
Within a lap, though, it had started to rain again, and Raikkonen suddenly started struggling with a catastrophic lack of grip.
Hamilton, knowing he could effectively win the race there and then, piled on the pressure, and by lap 26 was 21.8 seconds ahead of Raikkonen, who then lost his second place to Kovalainen.
Already, it was clear that Hamilton pretty much had the race under control.
The weather remained difficult to predict, though, and McLaren had another tough call to make when Hamilton came in for his second pit stop on lap 38, with the rain beginning to come down much harder.
They fitted Hamilton with a new set of intermediates - even though conditions were bad enough for Honda to call both its drivers in and fit them with "extreme" wets in what would turn out to be a successful attempt to conjure an unexpected good result.
The conditions were treacherous - a number of drivers spun off at this stage of the race, including Jenson Button's Honda - but Hamilton continued on his serene way, by now almost a minute ahead of Heidfeld.
"It was so extreme out there, probably as extreme in some cases as Fuji last year," Hamilton said.
Hamilton was out on his own for much of the race
"Obviously there wasn't as much rain. I was having big problems with my visor, I couldn't see a thing, especially the right side. I was having to lift my visor up and clean it every lap, especially when it was starting to rain."