Motor racing: Hamilton breaks Schumacher’s record
Such is Lewis Hamilton’s dominance of Formula One that hardly a race weekend goes by without him “breaking or equalling some kind of record”, said Dan Ripley in the Daily Mail. The 35-year-old’s latest milestone, however, is “one of the biggest”: at the Portuguese Grand Prix last Sunday, he earned the 92nd victory of his career, taking him clear of Michael Schumacher as the “greatest race winner of them all”. It was a
“typically dominant and ruthless display” that demonstrated why Hamilton is one of the sport’s greats, said Rebecca Clancy in The Times. In cold and wet conditions, his Mercedes initially “struggled for grip on its medium tyres”, and he slipped from pole position to third place. By lap 20, he’d regained his lead. In the closing laps, he was beset by cramp in his right calf, causing him “excruciating” pain whenever he pressed the accelerator. Even so, he beat second-placed Valtteri Bottas by 25.5 seconds – the biggest winning margin of the season. detractors say, his achievements speak for themselves: he has now amassed as many wins as Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost combined, and he leads the all-time list both for pole positions and podium finishes. Moreover, he is guaranteed to equal Schumacher’s seven F1 titles this season – and could well surpass him next year. It’s already beyond doubt that Hamilton is a “better champion” than Schumacher was, said Luke Slater in the same paper. The German’s achievements were tarnished by moments of astonishing cynicism – such as “driving into both Damon Hill and Jacques Villeneuve in the 1994 and 1997 title deciders”. Hamilton, by contrast, is a “hard” but “fair” competitor.