Lewis evokes magical Merseyside memories
LEWIS HAMILTON was back in “crowd-surfacing” action among his adoring supporters in the 140,000 crowd after a victory and a series of record-equalling British race driver records by the three times world champion at last Sunday’s British Grand Prix at Silverstone.
As he crossed the finishing line in his Mercedes F1 Team W08, after a flawless display, Hamilton’s performance of five British Grand Prix wins, four of them in a row from 2014-1017 and five poles, matched that of fellow British legend, the late Jim Clark who had started his own record breaking run on Merseyside 55 years ago.
During a halcyon period when Southport experienced Grand Prix “fever”, with race fans flocking to the resort during race week, Clark’s victory in a Lotus Climax 25 at the “Aintree” British Grand Prix on Saturday, July 21, 1962 very much followed the pattern of Hamilton’s total domination last weekend.
At post-qualifying interviews carried out by former Southport schoolboy James Allen, who is perhaps best remembered as the voice of ITVs coverage of F1, and award winning books on world champions Michel Schumacher and Nigel Mansell, Hamilton, after equalling a 50-year-old British GP poles record, held by Clark, said he had been “inspired” by the fans “energy.”
Back at Aintree in 1962 Clark had stamped his authority on the event at the outset and was over half a second quicker that John Surtees (Lotus-Cli- max), another great favourite with the Merseyside crowds and who sadly died earlier this year.
Come the race last weekend and it was “hammer time” all the way for Hamilton, who was determined to rid himself of the adverse criticism he had received in some quarters for being the only one of the present 20 grand prix drivers to not attend a pro- motional London Live F1 event on the eve of the Grand Prix weekend.
From lights out Britain’s golden boy ruled Silverstone and 1 hour 21 minutes 27.430 seconds later he took the chequered flag, 14 seconds clear of his Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas, to tumultous applause all around the circuit.
In the closing minutes of the race the Ferrari challenge had faltered when Kimi Raikkonen, slipped from second to fourth, and championship leader Sebastian Vettel, dropped back from fourth to seventh, after last minutes tyre failures.
Red Bull duo Max Verstappen finished fourth and fifth, with Nico Hulkenberg(Renault) sixth and the pink liveried Force India duo of Esteban Ocon and Sergio Perez, eighth and ninth, ahead of the final points scorer Felipe Massa (Williams-Mercedes-Benz).
Any pre-race animosity towards Hamilton had been quickly forgotten. The boy from Stevenage had delivered. And the crowds were ecstatic.
It was time for that repeat “crowd surfacing” phenomenon that first hit the newspaper and media headlines last year.
Clark’s drive at Aintree back in 1962 was also poetry in motion and the press of the day reported on a “stunning” and “masterful” drive as he “drove off into the distance” leaving the rest of the field in his wake and with a fight over second place.
In fact after 2 hours 26 minutes and 20.800 seconds he took the chequered flag almost 50 seconds ahead of Surtees and he had lapped all but the first four out of the 21 starters. He also recorded the fastest lap as did Hamilton last weekend.
There was to be no “crowd surfing” from the quiet and unassuming Scot, who had just won his second ever world championship race.
One report simply said he just returned home to the Borders of Scotland to herd the sheep on his family farm.
Clark went on to win two world championship Drivers’ titles in 1963 and 1965 and during his career won a total of five British Grand Prix and four in a row from1962-65 (one each at Aintree and Brands Hatch and two at Silverstone).
His career was tragically cut short when was killed in a Formula Two race heat at Hockenheim in Germany in 1968.
Back to Silverstone last weekend and Hamilton received the prestigious Hawthorn Memorial Trophy in memory of yet another Aintree hero Mike Hawthorn for a sixth time.
It is awarded annually to the most successful British and Commonwealth driver in the previous years FIA World Drivers’ Championship and it went to Hamilton after finishing runner-up to team-mate Nico Rosberg in 2016.
Hawthorn finished second in a Vanwall Special in the second ever Formula One race held at Aintree in October 1954 shortly after the circuit opened.
On that day he had been beaten by the undisputed “King of Aintree” Stirling Moss, in a Maserati 250F, who went on to win “Aintree” British GPs in 1955 for Mercedes-Benz, when the team members and their cars were located in Southport throughout race week, and in 1957 on the occasion when together with Manchester dentist Tony Brooks they shared in a history making all-British victory in a Vanwall, a feat that was fully documented in the Southport Visiter sports pages last week, and which took place exactly 60 years ago tomorrow (Friday) on July 21, 1957.
Hawthorn, driving a Lancia-Ferrari, had finished third in the race and in 1958 went on to win the World Championship by one point from Moss. Weeks later he was killed in a road accident on the Guildford by-pass in Surrey.
Following last weekend’s race Hamilton’s win has narrowed the title chase to just one point with Vettel holding the advantage with 177 points to 176 and with Bottas not far behind in third on 154.
Once again a British driver win has sparked off memories of great British motor racing achievements when the Grand Prix “circus” came to Merseyside and drivers and enthusiasts enjoyed a taste of what Southport, with a history of racing and record breaking already well known, had to offer.
Postcript:While Hamilton and Clark have scored the most British Grand Prix wins by a British driver, Alain Prost, from France, has also scored five British GP wins.
Hamilton, who won his first home race with McLaren in 2008, when Steve Hallam was head of race engineering at the team, declared: “It’s surreal to be up there will all these legends.”