Lewis Hamilton warned critics to never again question his race preparations after he completed a record-equalling fifth victory at the British Grand Prix yesterday.
The Mercedes driver got his championship bid back on track after winning his home race at Silverstone, closing the gap to Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel to one point at the halfway stage of the season and silencing his doubters.
Hamilton had chosen to miss the F1 Live event in London last week, a decision met with a chorus of disapproval. He needed to prepare for the race, he argued, his point affirmed by his driving in front of 350,000 supporters.
The triple world champion secured his fifth victory in the race, to join Jim Clark and Alain Prost on that mark, and said: “There’s no need to question my preparations. I have more poles than most and I am building up the wins. If you don’t know my preparations are on point, then I guess you never will.”
Toto Wolff, the Mercedes executive director, said the criticism of the past few days had given Hamilton, who took a two-day holiday in Greece at the expense of the London event, extra motivation. “Extracting maximum performance is an answer to the critics,” Wolff said. “I don’t understand why the British hero was being beaten up before his home grand prix and that made him more determined about how he can drive — and he can drive.”
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Hamilton entered the weekend 20 points adrift of Vettel in the championship. Aside from needing to turn his fortunes round he also had to bear the weight of rewriting the history books. And he did just that.
Alongside the names of Clark and Prost will sit Hamilton’s, each with a record five British Grand Prix wins. Hamilton’s name, though, will sit alone as the only man to win four consecutive races at Silverstone. Clark won four consecutively, but they were not all at the Northamptonshire track.
The 32-year-old celebrated in the only way he knows how — crowdsurfing the thousands of fans who had waited to catch a glimpse of him up close. He then credited those supporters with inspiring the record-equalling victory.
When asked why he was so good at Silverstone, he joked: “Because I own it,” before adding: “I am good at this track but the energy I get from the fans — I don’t think any other driver gets that. It lifts you up. From the start I could see the crowd and every time I looked from the corner of my eye I could see everyone standing up, cheering — every single lap, everyone standing and cheering. I feel that is them egging me on and you don’t see that anywhere else in the world.”
For Hamilton’s leading rival, the weekend will be one to move on from quickly. Vettel, who endured a puncture on the penultimate lap, had to settle for seventh place and six points. But with half the season remaining, the four-times world champion is not going to dwell. “[The weekend] could have been a little bit better, for sure, but [a] disaster? I don’t think so,” Vettel said.
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Despite complaining about the state of his tyres in the closing laps, Ferrari made no moves to bring him in for a fresh set. The puncture forced their hand but by then the damage was done.
“I don’t think there’s anyone particularly to blame,” Vettel said. “Hindsight is great, with hindsight it is easy, but at the time it felt OK. Kimi [Raikkonen, Ferrari team-mate] had similar issues and his tyres were at least five or six laps fresher, so it caught us both by surprise.”
Vettel will be hoping for no more surprises at the next race, in Hungary. Unfortunately for the German, Hamilton has also won at the Hungaroring, in Budapest, five times.
To prepare, Hamilton will spend the next two weeks in various locations and has warned against anyone questioning his schedule. In his 11th season in the sport, he says he has worked out what is best. “I’m very fortunate that I know what is right for me. I know how to get myself ready,” he said. “[If I didn’t] I wouldn’t have the poles that I have, I wouldn’t have the wins that I have.
“I train myself and know what to do to get myself ready. This weekend has shown it. I’m really happy, with all that negativity that came into the weekend, to be able to perform the way I have.”
