In both besting his teammate and his biggest rival slipping-up spectacularly, Lewis Hamilton proved once again why he’s the best on the grid at Silverstone on Sunday.
Wow. What a race, and what a driver.
Just in case you weren’t sure beforehand, Sunday’s British GP proved Lewis Hamilton is the best driver on the grid. Earth-shattering stuff, I know.
In all seriousness, yesterday’s race only confirmed what we already knew about the five-time world champion, but that didn’t make it any less of a remarkable performance, particularly in how he compared to that of his two most significant measuring sticks: Valtteri Bottas and Sebastian Vettel.
Bottas, who had managed to eke out pole the day before, simply couldn’t match him for pace. Of course, there’s no denying the fortuitous timing of the safety car in getting Hamilton past his teammate, but comparing Hamilton’s gaps to Bottas’ really illustrates the Briton’s superiority. For the 16 laps Bottas was leading, Hamilton’s average deficit was 0.878 seconds, and never more than 1.524 seconds – after the restart, with Bottas on mediums to Hamilton’s hards, the Finn was never within a second and 3.322s down before his second stop.
Add to that Hamilton banging in a fastest lap on 30-lap old hards while Bottas couldn’t match him on the softs, and you just have to throw your hands up and say, “that’s why he’s Lewis Hamilton”.
Moving on to Vettel, and well… this was less a case of Hamilton doing something right and more a case of the German doing something wrong. Time and again, it seems you give him something to think about besides the track in front of him – like a chasing Hamilton in Canada, or a feisty Max here – and he’ll proceed to cock it up. Compare it with how Hamilton goes about his business, and it’s night and day. Even if Ferrari had the car, how could you expect the German to challenge for the title when he’s in this headspace?
In any case, it was a fantastic race, with a deserved winner. Also as a Roger Federer fan, it was just nice to see one sporting legend who didn’t completely bottle it.
Quick Hits
As bad as the Vettel incident was, it was nevertheless nice to see him take (almost) immediate ownership. Especially with Verstappen’s reputation of moving under braking, it would’ve been easy for the German to say “I’ll wait for the video”, but instead he fully owned up to his mistake and tried to make amends. Good stuff.
Once again enduring a dismal weekend courtesy of their drivers’ first lap coming-together, it seems Haas might need their own Netflix series just to cover all their mishaps. Poor Guenther Steiner, it’s like each race they devise a new way to piss him off.
FOM’s TV direction can be spotty at the best of times, but yesterday was truly atrocious. No we don’t want to see crowd reaction while the battle is still going on, nor shots of an empty track. Just keep it where the action is, it’s not that hard.
Driver of the Day: Lewis Hamilton
Simply had the measure of his pole-sitting teammate, and then went and banged-in a fastest lap on 30-lap old hards. What a driver.
Worst of the Day: *tie* Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen
Poor Guenther Steiner, he’s going to have an aneurysm the way things are going.
Quote of the Day:
“The best that our drivers could bring to the battle was a shovel – to dig the hole we’re in even deeper. We need to go back, regroup, and see what we do in future.” – Guenther Steiner, being absolutely savage.