Lewis Hamilton's stylish Silverstone pole position shows that few deliver the way he does when the chips are down
After controversially deciding to give Wednesday’s London Live event a miss, Hamilton redeemed himself by taking pole position at Silverstone for Sunday's British Grand Prix
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Your support makes all the difference.Lewis Hamilton doesn’t always give his fans what they want – as he demonstrated by deciding to give Wednesday’s London Live event a miss – but few deliver the way he does when the chips are down.
After the first runs in the last session of a topsy turvy qualifying this afternoon, he was a scant two-tenths of a second ahead of arch-rival Sebastian Vettel.
But when that session was over he had stretched that gap to half a second over Vettel’s team-mate Kimi Raikkonen, taken his tally of pole positions to one behind Michael Schumacher’s record of 68, and given close to 200,000 spectators exactly what they had braved wind and rain to see.
And he did it in style, thanking the fans who had made the effort to get to the Northamptonshire track. Those who had gone to London in the hope of seeing him might still be miffed that he chose instead to take a two-day holiday in Greece, but people here cheered him as he redeemed himself.
“Every year it’s amazing to see how many fans there are from Thursday onwards, as they set up in the campsites often before we even arrive,” he acknowledged. “On every lap through the corners I could see them out of the corner of my eye, and feel the energy that inspires me to get laps like that.”
But he said he struggled to put into words the feeling of love he feels from their loyal support.
“I grew up watching racing on television, and I remember seeing Nigel Mansell and all the support he got. And I remember thinking, ‘Wow, I wonder what that would feel like, all that focus and attention and support and positive energy going into one spot, into me.’ It’s really peaked in the last couple of years and to come here and receive that love, to see all the waved British flags, to take P1. It’s so energising.
“Nigel mentioned years ago that it gives you a second; well, maybe it’s worth half a second. It definitely feels like it gives you something when you carry that energy. And in life when you are around positive people, you generally have a better day.”
Hamilton is surrounded by such people at Silverstone, among them his brother Nic who has never let his cerebral palsy interfere with his own dreams to race, or the remarkable teenage racer Billy Monger who, little more than two months after having both legs amputated after an accident at Donington Park, drove a racing car again in preparation for resumption of his competition career. He has been Hamilton’s guest this weekend.
“There are so many inspiring kids here,” he said, “such a lot of positive energy around.”
He radiated it himself, in and out of his Mercedes, as he dealt with his own team-mate, Austrian GP winner Valtteri Bottas, and the Ferraris.
“It was a tricky qualifying session, overcast with a bit of rain to begin with, but these are the conditions I grew up in, so I feel very much at home in them. After that final lap, I wasn’t expecting a gap like that, but it’s always the target, so I feel very proud.”
And he could barely suppress his exhilaration from driving the latest breed of F1 car, which can now run flat through Silverstone’s once-daunting Copse corner, all the way through the snaky wiggles that are Maggotts and Becketts - the most challenging sequence of high-speed curves in racing – and through Chapel corner on to the Hangar Straight.
The spectating Jenson Button could barely believe his own eyes.
“This is the first time I’ve seen quallie live,” the 2009 champion said, “and seeing the cars through Maggotts and Becketts is just awesome!”
“The downforce is incredible,” Hamilton agreed. “And one of the reasons this track is so great through that section is that it’s like being in a wind tunnel. You could take Copse flat out in eighth gear now, but actually you could scrub of a lot of speed that way so it’s not actually necessary and I personally don’t take it flat and it doesn’t seem to cost me time.
“Maggotts and Becketts… Turns 10 to 13… That section is just on fire. Turn 10 there has been flat for years and so has 11, Turn 12 has been building up bit by bit to where you are still on the gas, and now 13 is a fantastic corner. It’s very bumpy, you are on maximum downforce and the suspension and tyres are on maximum compression, and all the way down to Stowe corner you are flat out. I don’t know how much faster we are going through there, but I’d assume it’s at least 10 kmh.”
Last year’s cars went through Copse at 270 kmh in seventh gear, into the Maggotts/Becketts swerves at 310 in eighth, out of them at 280 in seventh, and up to Stowe at 330 kmh in eighth…
If Hamilton reveres his fans, he also adores this track and the challenge it presents, and is a staunch defender of it against rumours this weekend of a possible switch after 2019 to a London venue.
“I love this track. And I’ve said many times, this is the home of motorsport. Many of the teams are based here, and when you see the crowd here at every grand prix, there is no reason not have it, and it would be a real shame to lose it. I don’t believe for a second that we will lose the British GP, because I think then the world would erupt. And if that were to happen, I would do whatever I can to encourage it to happen.”
On Sunday he knows that the Ferraris will be stronger, and that Bottas will struggle to support him due to a five grid-place penalty. But the focus remains not just to deliver a fifth British GP victory to the fans, but in doing so to match fellow British great Jim Clark, and French doyen Alain Prost.
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