WORLD BEATER
Lewis lands his fourth F1 crown
LEWIS HamILton is King of the track again — winning his fourth world title in a controversial mexican Grand Prix to become the most decorated British champion in history.
the mercedes man survived being hit by his only rival for the title, Sebastian Vettel, on the first lap — a dubious collision — to win motor racing’s biggest prize in the 18th race of the
It WASN’t the race he wanted. It wasn’t the race any great champion would have wished for on coronation day. Ninth is not where Lewis Hamilton eever wants to be.
But it was, unmistakably, the drive of a champion. Somehow, Hamilton overcame a collision, a puncture and a place at the back of the field to become the greatest driver in British B motor racing history.
Given this country’s record in the sport s — 10 champions, more than any other nation — that is no empty accolade. And there was something fitting about having to fight his way through t the field to claim his prize. there has always been something of the streetfighter in Hamilton.
Scrappy. It is the word he uses to describe d his upbringing in Stevenage. the karts, and the back streets where they were built or cheaply bought, the red and white flask from race days that he still keeps k as a reminder, no longer filled with ready-mix chicken and noodle soup. ‘It was very scrappy,’ he says. ‘YYou couldn’t get scrappier.’
Much like yesterday’s struggle in Mexico. Not since Michael Schumacher retired from the final race at Adelaide in 1994 has a driver finished so low down the field to clinch a championship. But, as with Schumacher, amid the scrappiness there was greatness, too.
And as he stands at the pinnacle of his sport this morning, the first Briton to win four championships, it is Hamilton’s most combative instincts, his willingness to fight, that has set him apart from both predecessors and contemporaries.
When he started out, Eddie Jordan wondered whether Hamilton had the necessary aggression to be a champion. He seemed too wellmannered, too polite, his rough edges smoothed by a young life on the McLaren production line.
We know better now. Hamilton may have said and done the right things back then, but a scrappy, beating heart remained. the clues were always there: his incredible rookie season, four wins, eight other podium finishes and a point off the champion, Kimi Raikkonen and his Ferrari. Swiftly followed by his first title in 2008 — the only one this century to be won by a driver without the best car.
And now these, the Hamilton years — three championships in four seasons, an athlete who knows his own mind, driving and living with the audacious flamboyance of ages past.
Hamilton’s hero is Ayrton Senna and it will be bittersweet to have passed his three drivers’ titles, but at least some of the Brazilian’s spirit remains. Hamilton is no buttoneddown automaton. the car may be programmed, but he is not. A year ago, in Abu Dhabi, his tactic of taking the lead and then deliberately slowing to back Nico Rosberg into the pack, could have cost him his contract with Mercedes. He didn’t care. the only way he could win the drivers’ championship was if Rosberg finished off the podium.
He did all he could to try to make that happen, just as yesterday he took huge risks to pass Fernando Alonso late and secure ninth place, when 10th would have sufficed given Sebastian Vettel’s position. And he knew that, too. It’s the car, say Hamilton’s detractors. Anyone can win with the best car. And, yes, the importance of technology is inescapable.
Yet if the man with the best car always won, how to explain Hamilton’s triumph in 2008, the title that places him beside some of the greatest drivers in history — just three in 31 years having triumphed without the best car — including Schumacher? Senna never won a drivers’ championship in an inferior machine. Nor has Vettel or Alonso.
Yet when Hamilton secured his first championship, McLaren were second to Ferrari in the constructors’ championship — more points, 21, between first and second, then between McLaren and BMW-Sauber in third. Hamilton beat Felipe Massa to the prize and yesterday’s race played out like a career rerun. Past Massa, past Alonso, Vettel denied despite his best efforts.
Jackie Stewart’s three titles are bunched in a five-year spell, Jim Clark’s two were won over three years before his career was tragically curtailed. Hamilton now spans a decade, four titles in 10 years, as Schumacher did, seven in 11. He is in that company now, and with a new challenge — Max Verstappen’s race win once again giving promise of a great rivalry to come.
that, for now, is to be anticipated. this morning, Hamilton can drink it in. Britain’s greatest driver. Not because he has the best car, but because he is scrappy, and brave, and astonishingly gifted. He deserves every garland and tribute that comes his way.