There aren’t enough superlatives to describe the quality of Lewis Hamilton’s win. It took a typical British summer’s day – wind, showers, some sun – to give Hamilton the canvas on which to display his abundance of natural talent. The Englishman didn’t put a foot wrong.
Well, he says he made a couple of mistakes but errors by his exacting standards were easily forgivable on a day like this.
Forget the jingoism that will pour from Monday’s newspapers in a summer when Britain is being stuffed in just about every sport. The important fact is that, in an hour and 39 minutes, Hamilton wiped out the errors of the past two races and put himself back in the championship frame; back on top of it, in fact, with a drive reminiscent of his commanding performance last year in the wet in Japan.
There were a couple of key moments:
- The start, when Heikki Kovalainen and Mark Webber were slow away from the front row, allowing Hamilton to pass the Red Bull and bang wheels with Kovalainen as the McLaren drivers fought for the lead.
- The pass Hamilton eventually pulled on his team-mate; it was one of those ‘I’m coming through, mate’ jobs in the mould of Ayrton Senna.
- And the pit stop at the end of lap 21. I shared the BBC Radio 5 Live commentary box with Anthony Davidson and, for a moment, the former Super Aguri driver thought McLaren had called it wrong as they gave Hamilton a fresh set of intermediate rain tyres.
The track was beginning to dry and Davidson reasoned that Ferrari had it right when they kept the original set of intermediates on Kimi Raikkonen’s car as he stopped at exactly the same time. These were well scrubbed by now and would be ideal.
And so they would have been had one thing not happened; it started to rain a lap later. Having closed down Hamilton’s lead to 3.2 seconds, within the space of five laps it was 29 seconds as Raikkonen found no grip at all, his wet weather grooves having long gone. Game over.
Well, not quite. Hamilton had to keep calm, maintain his concentration and deal with the standing water that was sending cars every which way but the right way. In the end, he came home over a minute ahead of Nick Heidfeld’s BMW. And he was leading the championship again thanks to Raikkonen slipping to fourth while Robert Kubica ended his race in a gravel trap and we lost count of the number of times Massa spun into 13th place.
The vast majority of the 90,000 fans were soaked thanks to Silverstone’s topless grandstands, but no one cared. The sun came out and combined with the wind to blow away the damp just as surely as Hamilton’s performance wiped the slate clean.
For the time being. It’s back to square one in Hockenheim in a fortnight for the next encounter in this extraordinary season.
related to Lewis, are we mr. writer?
Ham took another win just thanks to Kimis misfortune. But who cares, it will be World Championship nuber two for Kimi at the end of the season anyway…
Wiped the slate clean? That’s the problem with the British press. As soon as Hamilton puts a wheel wrong he’s villified in manner normally reserved for criminals, and just as quickly forgiven when he puts in a race winning performance. I’ve backed Hamilton since the start of the season, I said he’d win this race and I’ve said he’ll win the championship. I’ll wait til he doesn’t before slating him.
Wow!! A great British race from Lewis.
I soooo want Lewis to win the championship.
Seems the british weather decided to help Hamilton.
had it not rained Kimi would have walked all over Lewis after the second round of pitstops.
Barichello was the real star of the show.
a rather cynical board are we not!
i am very happy lewis has won, not half since this is very likely to be silverstones last british GP. he kept his cool, mabye a slight exaggeraion to say “wiped the slate clean” but it really hasonce more raised his prospects of championship glory…
Very solid win; Inspiring watch
He put pressure on from the beginning and nearly got first from forth in the first corner alone. His pace was untouchable throughout and when the Ferrari’s got close they scuffed it. The beautiful match of Mclaren and Hamilton is spectacular and both deserve a championship. Hamilton was close to winning it on his opening season and looks like he is capable to do it this season. The Brit has set milestones in both Silverstone and Monaco the only way to go now is up. Superb driver, carry on Lewis.
I think Brundle’s post-race comment on Massa was apt: “He was like a spinning top; whenever you saw anything red on the track it was usually Massa going backwards”.
I think Lewis has proven that he has driving talent that goes beyond his main rivals. Kimi cocked up a couple of times, as did Kubica. And Massa must have came out of his car all dizzy and disorientated! Meanwhile Lewis didn’t mess up at all. If even the likes of heidfeld and barrichello can do it, why can’t the ferrari drivers?
Give credit where its due. LH did an almost perfect job today and so did the entire Mac. team. How can anyone in their right mind make statements about Kimmi woulda, coulda? Gimmie a break! If it dried out then more than likely they would have gone to dries and the Mac were the top of the grid the whole weekend, again lending to an LH victory.
“Ham took another win just thanks to Kimis misfortune.”
No, Hamilton took another win due to his excellent skill and a major tactical blunder from the Ferrari team.
Congratulations to Hamilton and McLaren for a great win.
Heidfeld had some remarkably good passes and he deserves his second place.
And good job to Rubens Barrichello. It was nice seeing Honda up on the podium again.
Great driving by Lewis, and a bold move by Honda really paid off. If it wasn´t for those full wet tires, Barrichello would never have finished 3rd.
And, as I said before, Ferrari is showing just how incompetent a team can be when badly run and trained. The setup on Massa´s car was just awful after his crash on friday, you can see that by the on-board camera, how hard he had to work. The non tire change at the pitstop only made things worse for Felipe and ruined Kimi´s race as well.
But what saddens me the most is that this race was exactly what Mr. Ecclestone wanted. There never was a dispute of skill and machinery, it was just a matter of who doesn´t get killed by a puddle. It was an entertaining show in the same way The Three Stooges are, but as a race, it was really boring and frustrating, and now Bernie can say “See? Silverstone sucks!”
superb drive by him
But, The pass Hamilton eventually pulled on his team-mate; it was one of those ‘I’m coming through, mate’ jobs in the mould of Ayrton Senna??
Great drive by Lewis, but a question for Eccelstone: If Silverstone doesn’t meet the standards for a modern F1 GP then how did we manage to see a fantastic race in challenging conditions with cars spinning off the track all over the place and not have one major accident and not a sniff of a safety car? Can’t be that bad a track then Bern?
PS: To all the Ferrari fans: count the spins by Kimi and Fellippe before you comment on the race winner
great race from lewis, who deserved the win. Its incredible how people think he didn’t deserve it especially when he was lapping 3-4 seconds a lap quicker than anyone else on the same tyres!
For sure it would have been closer had it not rainer, but i’m afraid to say that it isnt luck when it rains with the new high tech forecasting systems that the teams use, ferrari would have known it was about to rain and, clearly, made a bad decision.
great win by hamilton, but also good for heidfeld and barrichello to get a podium
Lewis drove a good race, not making any mistakes after showing a lack of Big Match Temperament in the last few races. Although the hysterical British coverage makes being happy for a British driver very challenging.
Ferrari make a spectacularly stupid decision with Raikkonen when everyone was expecting rain and gave away any chance of challenging for the win.
as an aussie it was great to see webber on the front row… not so good to see him spin on the way into hanger… top race by barichello too just needed a bit more rain and a bit more fuel to really have a go at it… great race by lewis though – just needs to be able to do it more often through the season…
Heidfeld and Hamilton just drove good race, Real winner is Barichello! Massa is no good, Kimi suffers for Ferrari’s poor tactic, Kubica was victim of weather and Heikki ,well he keeps grand price waiting, maybe bad luck again; car which work on dry well, isnt too good on wet.
Alonso really had some kicks into hes head at last laps…
Massa show was worht of watching!
Quote Karim:
related to Lewis, are we mr. writer?
Why can’t the small-minded minority give credit where it’s due? All this stuff about ‘Kimi’s misfortune’, the weather helping etc. If we’re going to follow this ‘what if’ mentality: What if Lewis had never become a driver? What if Senna hadn’t died? What if Mansell was still around? What if Schumacher had never retired? None of that counts, the result counts, 68.5 seconds in front of an excellent Nick Heidfeld counts, lapping all bar 2 of the best drivers in the world in extreme conditions counts. Get off Lewis’ back, let him do his job and marvel in a supreme display of top-level driving!
I’m a confirmed Lewis-phobic, but even I have to admit that he drove a stunning race yesterday. The lap times he was doing on intermediates compared to the rest of the field just beggared belief. Top race by Barichello too, chuffed to see him up there. And don’t forget Heidfeld too, he’s had a miserable run of form lately but was rather more impressive than Kubica this weekend.
So that this doesn’t go on any further, Maurice isn’t related to Lewis, they just share a surname.
That was the best race, to watch, all year. I didn’t get bored once!
The top three finishers were definitely the most deserving of their silverware – not to say that others wouldn’t have been, Mark Webber still drove a good race despite water skating on lap 1, and many others were just unlucky as well.
Watching Massa pirouetting continuously, pleasurable as it was, reminded me of a past Brit GP in the rain when he spun out 3 times in a Sauber Ferrari. At least he’s beating some kind of record…
Still, the bad guys lost. And the English guy won. That’ll do for me! But I bet if Bernie is the independent investor for Donington Park, being on the FIA, that track will work to Ferrari’s advantage in 2010.
Oh, and to all the newspapers: LEAVE LEWIS ALONE!!
*AN English guy won, not ‘the’. My bad. He was the only lasting Brit in that race though.
I don’t know why Lars believes Hamilton only won because of Ferrari’s tyre mistake. Did he not see that after Kimi changed his tyres he still went off the track more than Hamilton. Hamilton won the race because on the day he was the best driver with the most consistent drive in poor conditions.
Just a few thoughts on all this:
1) Lewis totally deserved that – he simply blew everyone away. Even if he is starting to come across as a bit smug. And what was all that stuff from both him and his Dad about ‘nobody could possibly understand what we’ve been through these past few weeks’. Is there any more to this than some newspapers being mildly critical of his cock-up in Canada? Get it in perspective guys – you’re in danger of fueling a Lewis backlash – don’t do a Mansell, people really do want to support you.
2) People have been posting on this blog about Lewis being gifted the race due to Kimi’s misfortune. Yes, Kimi may have won had it stropped raining and he’d had a tyre advantage. But it didn’t and he didn’t. Under normal conditions, who knows – But Lewis looked pretty much in control to my eyes. And don’t get me started on Massa..
3) Barrichello – OK he drove a good race on the right tyres. I can’t imagine why more teams didn’t make the same choice. Anyone remember how Ferrari used to run rings round the others on tactics? And now we get a wet/dry(ish) race and we find Honda punching massively above their weight. And the common denominator is Ross Braun.
4) Finally this whole business about the Donington GP. Seemed mighty tactless and unecessary to announce the new deal on Friday. Couldn’t it have waited until this week? But in any case, I’m wondering if there is more to it than appears. I’m not convinced that we won’t still see the GP held at Silverstone in 2010 and beyond…
Why is it that the same people who lambast Lewis when something goes wrong for him then say he got lucky when something goes right? He drove a magnificent race yesterday – end of story. Wish the idiots out there would just grow up.
Or face the fact: Lewis had good luck there too, ‘cuse ferrari lacks man with tactical eye (and only real battle is between Ferrari and Mclaren) and other teams are just too slow to keep up… maybe BWM can fight back sometimes but not on every race
But even Ham’ did drove at grass once in race. and in qualify which was driven on DRY track.
One more thing: Have you paid attention to spanish media? after every freeking race: “True winner of the weekend is Alonso…” race has only 1 winner, how can it be Alonso at 5th or under? =D
Even as a diehard Ferrari fan you have to give credit where it’s due. Lewis drove a flawless race compared to the rest of the field. Yes, Kimi would have been closer with full wets or even new intermediates on the first pitstop, but the way Hamilton was driving I don’t think anyone was going to catch him. Great job Lewis.
He drove a good race. Interestingly, if Hamilton hadn’t had to change his tyres (he had to because the mclaren is harsh on its tyres) would mclaren have left the same set of intermediates on ? Alonso, Webber, Raikkonen – all kept the same tyres. To me this indicates that they expected rain, but no more than a few minutes of very light drizzle, and left on the tyres so they were in a better position for a drying track. They all have similar weather prediction systems, but then, you can’t always predict weather 100% accurately. In Monaco they thought it’d rain for about 7 minutes at the start and then be dry for the rest of the race etc. All in all, and it pains me to admit this, Hamilton drove well, and got the little bit of luck that anyone needs in a wet F1 race.
Still though, that race could’ve been epic if a ceratin Michael Schumacher was still racing. The ‘rainmaster’ versus the ‘young pretender’ to his crown. The master would’ve come out on top, or it’d have been very very close.
Also, have to feel sorry for barrichello. Would’ve easily had second had it not been for a dodgy fuel rig. Poor chap, but definately drive of the day for the veteran.
I have to agree with CCns, after reviewing the race, I maintain what I´ve said before: Ferrari ruined the races for both Kimi and Massa. Massa lost the race on the friday crash, and never had a fighting chance during tha race under rain with the car set all wrong. And Ferrari also took away any possibility Kimi would have had.
But it really doesn´t matter, because while everyone, and I mean EVERYONE was having a major problem to stay on track, Lewis (and Barrichelo, I might add), was driving as if he belonged in a wet track, and no one could have taken win this from him.
Lewis won the race because of Ferrari making the mistake with kimi’s tyre’s!
Hamilton just kept the car in the track, his team won not him…many other drivers kept it in the track too, but dind’t get the chance to win because of wrong decisions or poor mechanics. Hamilton is not the best he is just good.
Ferrari’s mistake was their fault. Lewis drove a fantastic race, I knew Hamilton was going to win and he deserved to win. He is capable of winning world chapionship he just needs to focus and stop making avoidable mistakes.
Keep it up Lewis! xxx
When are people going to stop critisising Lewis and accept the truth; he’s the real deal!
His drive at Silverstone was superb.Others made mistakes but tough, you make your own luck.
I don’t see any Ferrari lovers saying that Kimi won the championship because Mclaren messed Lewis’ chances in China.
Yes he’s prone to making the odd mistake,but we seem to be forgetting that he’s only 22 and in just his 2nd F1 season.
However, when he’s in the groove,no one can touch him, aside from maybe Kimi or Alonso(with a decent car).
When he matures a bit more and learns to drive for points when he can’t win ,instead of overdriving needlessly,he will dominate the sport for years to come.
For once,Britain has a geniune world class talent,lets get behind him and celebrate the fact.
lewis hamilton is the stig i have proof!!!!!
i do think hamilton is farster around the F1 track than the stig.