Top of the world Hamilton seals fifth Formula One title
Fifth title equals Fangio in the hall of fame Fourth place in Mexico is enough for Briton
In the final hours of a dark and sombre weekend for British sport, Lewis Hamilton provided one blazing shaft of light. With a drive of poise and maturity amid the kaleidoscopic colour of this Mexican Grand Prix, where lurid face-masks and Aztec costumes framed every inch of the grid, Britain’s greatest driver took a giant leap into Formula One immortality, emulating Juan Manuel Fangio with a fifth world title.
While the immediate moment of triumph was relegated down the headlines, quite rightly, by the helicopter tragedy in Leicester, this feat deserved to endure for posterity. Only two men, Fangio and Michael Schumacher, had ever known the sensation of becoming an F1 champion five times over, but here Hamilton joined that most gilded club.
Little did he know as a child, when father Anthony ferried him to karting races in a battered Fiat Cinquecento, that he would ever reach the sunlit uplands of F1.
Now Hamilton, a trailblazer in so many ways, has five of them. Still just 33, he has it within his gift to vault past Schumacher’s seven and cement his place as the greatest driver who ever lived.
For the second year running, Hamilton did not grasp the glory in quite the way he would have wanted. In 2017, he wrapped up his prize despite finishing a distant ninth, and on his return to the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, he again had to settle for also-ran status in the race itself. As Red Bull’s Max Verstappen bolted away for the win, Hamilton trailed home in fourth, his performance stymied by a shredded front left tyre.
It mattered, ultimately, not one iota. So impregnable was his advantage in the title standings that he could afford to slip back as far as seventh, while Sebastian Vettel, his only rival, needed to win. A luxurious equation, then – so comfortable, in fact, that Mercedes knew their man had done enough the instant Verstappen denied the German the victory. For the last blissful few corners, Hamilton could afford to cruise, in anticipation of his hero’s reception. “That’s how you do it,” actor Will Smith told him, via a recorded message on his in-car radio. “That’s how you drive.”
Perhaps it was not Hamilton’s finest driving exhibition on the day, but the 2018 campaign should surely count as his most pristine body of work. He has been near-faultless all year, claiming nine wins to Vettel’s five, retiring just once, when his ever-dependable Mercedes failed him in Austria. Vettel, although crestfallen, could not dispute that he had been vanquished by the better man. “It’s obviously not an easy day,” he said, beaten again with two grands prix to spare. “You would love to hang in there a bit longer. But congratulations to Mercedes. They did a superb job all year. For Lewis, No5 is something incredible.”
Hamilton, as has grown customary for newly-minted title-winners, celebrated with a few deftly-executed doughnuts. But as the cloud of burnt rubber dispersed, the respect between the two outstanding drivers of their generation, the first four-time champions to face off in the same season, was palpable, the embrace from Vettel for Hamilton prolonged and sincere.
Initially, Hamilton seemed unsure how to digest the magnitude of his achievement. His preference is to sign off in style, as he did in 2014 and 2015, with convincing wins, but Mercedes’ shortcomings in the altitude of Mexico City ensured that he was crowned here without even mounting the podium. “It’s a very strange feeling right now,” he said, describing his 71 laps, where he wrestled with his tyres and even slid off track in a battle with Daniel Ricciardo, as “horrible”.
He was alert enough, though, to note the historical significance of what he had done. Hamilton had known for some time that he was about to reach the benchmark of Fangio, the Argentine who bestrode F1 in the 1950s, and he made a point of name-checking his predecessor. “To complete this and go level with Fangio, who also won two championships with Mercedes, is an amazing feeling,” he said.
There was a tender reference, too, to his father. While the two were indivisible on Hamilton’s debut 11 years ago, with Anthony his son’s manager, they subsequently went through an estrangement as Lewis craved greater freedom from his parent. But here he was quick to acknowledge his debt of gratitude. “I wouldn’t be here if it had not been for all the hard work of my dad early in my career,” Hamilton said. “It’s a humbling experience.”
This latest coronation was a rarity in that none of Hamilton’s close family members were here to share it with him. Instead, the first person to jump into his arms was Angela Cullen, the New Zealander who started as his physiotherapist and wound up as his all-round “girl Friday’” attending to his every need at every race.
“This was won through a lot of effort by a lot of people,” Hamilton said, thanking the 1,500 Mercedes staff who had helped make his car supreme once more.
Yet the critical difference came behind the wheel. An odd and discordant Mexican finale it might have been, but in the final reckoning, Hamilton affirmed his case as a driver for the ages.