The truth is that in this weekend of great Formula 1 in the British Grand Prix we saw everything and more, but what really struck was Hamilton’s perseverance in believing he could do it despite apparently starting at a disadvantage already. of the tests and the new “experimental” qualifications on Saturday. Obviously without scruples about the expectations of his opponents: he is the best, he is the greatest, he is the “cannibal”. In fact, in the race, he did not really earn the respect and admiration that once suited him, when he started and was no longer seen, so much so that the cameras framed him at the beginning and then had to follow the backup positions.
This time, however, Hamilton had started in pursuit and above all he had immediately become the protagonist of a very questionable episode at the beginning and of a significant “nastiness” at the end, first against Verstappen and then against Leclerc, while both were leading the Grand Prix. Thus, his charisma prevailed, his consistency, a better pace, a better managed tire consumption and a strategy that, even taking into account a slow pit stop and a too small penalty of ten seconds, still led him to arrive first and to close a gap that has gone to only 8 world points behind in the drivers’ standings. One race, four stories and three candidates for victory.
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Despite being the undisputed king of this track (there are eight times, against Jim Clark and Alain Prost’s five), Hamilton won in Great Britain when most of the world was probably cheering on him. A bit because many have begun to sympathize with Verstappen, the current leader of the drivers’ standings. Partly because Ferrari has found surprisingly competitive competitiveness between. But after five Sundays of “giving up” the victory in a row, with even a fifteenth place in the middle, the seven-time Formula 1 world champion had to react at home. Now or never: the exorbitant contract for the continuation had already been signed for some time: the time had to come to prove that all that money was still worth. However Hamilton only really stood out in the last of the 52 laps of Sunday’s race. Four moments should therefore be highlighted where it was far from the best. On Saturday in the very first sprint race in Formula 1 history it is true that he took the lead of the “qualifying grid” in first place, but Verstappen immediately took the lead in the 17-lap mini-race and won ahead of him and Bottas, conquering three points against two and one of the Mercedes drivers. A first race experiment that had already seen Leclerc emerge in fourth place, generously ahead of both McLarens by almost 13 seconds. And that saw a great comeback on the first lap of Alonso so brilliant and exciting that it will be remembered and re-proposed forever in the history of this sport: only Raikkonen, Schumacher and a few others in fact have been able to conquer so many positions in the very first seconds of a grand prix .
The “second phase” of this far from boring British GP concerns Sunday, the “real” race, but it lasted only three laps because already in the very first lap, having reached the Copse, Hamilton and Verstappen, who were already dueling from the first curve, they touched in the wrong place and too fast. In fact, in full acceleration, Verstappen apparently makes a mistake and crashes at almost 300 per hour, with an impact subsequently estimated with a deceleration of 51G. At first it did not seem entirely right to penalize Hamilton heavily because he had slipped into a corner where it is notoriously difficult to overtake as you are in full acceleration. And the reason for the contact was due to a slight “rise” in his pedal which caused Verstappen’s wheel to touch his. Ideally, in that situation, at least one of the two should have gone beyond the track limits, but Hamilton, having already joined his opponent, gave him the choice: defend himself or give up the position. Verstappen therefore sought a defense but in the face of such a crazy overtaking, the minor experience led him to make a mistake and to be a loser and bruised. This was followed by a very long pause for technical restoration of the barriers but also for reflection on the part of the commissioners who, after the race restarted, announced only ten second penalties for Hamilton.
Obviously such an episode did and will cause a lot of discussion. The third phase is comprised of the restart on lap four, with restart from stationary after more than half an hour of rest, until almost the end. At that point, after the hustle and bustle of the first few minutes, Leclerc had slipped in the lead and stayed there for a long, long time, even after the second start, without ever being attacked or really approached until a few minutes from the end. It was said that Hamilton would have plenty of time to catch him, but after a few laps from the restart his 10 second penalty was announced. So Mercedes waited for the pit stop to pay its debt and, lap by lap, Hamilton managed to gradually reduce his gap on Leclerc, zeroing it a few laps from the end, when Ferrari started to lose strokes and start to turn significantly slower. From then on, the dream began to fade into red.