F1 News
That two per cent is where Hamilton and Verstappen stand out'
- GPblog.com
Last Sunday's Grand Prix looked like a failure for Lewis Hamilton for a moment. The British champion made a rare mistake, sliding off the track and damaging his front wing. In that sense, the crash of George Russell and Valterri Bottas came as a stroke of luck, as the red flag ensured that Hamilton's deficit was ultimately fairly limited. There are few who can do it like that and still finish second.
Fine example of steering skills
The fact that Lewis Hamilton is of a different calibre than most other drivers will come as no surprise to anyone. That together with a special amount of luck ensured that Hamilton could eventually finish second. Of course the high quality Mercedes plays an important role in this, but still the Briton gave away an excellent show. The only one who could not be overtaken was Max Verstappen.
Nevertheless, it was an enthralling race and Hamilton showed as if he was doing it with the greatest of ease. However, that is not the case, wrote former F1 driver Sergey Sirotkin exclusively for Formule1.nl. The Russian argued that Hamilton focuses on the small details, such as set-up, adjustments, driving style and more. These are exactly the elements that allow Hamilton to get the better of him and allow him to get back to the front of the race.
Bottas in the shadow of Hamilton
Valtteri Bottas, of course, has the same material but, even barring the crash, the Finn didn't really impress. With Hamilton's performance, Bottas is once again in the shadow, as Hamilton again showed his best, but that is also exactly his skills. For example, Sirotkin says: "It may look easy from the outside what Hamilton does, but believe me: he had to do everything to perfection to get that second place."
According to Sirotkin, there are many good drivers, but there are only a few who can get that little bit extra out of a car. The ones who can do that are Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton and that is what makes them stand out from the rest. Sirotkin: "You often see that guys from F2 or F3 can set good lap times in a modern F1 car under constant conditions. The bar of 98 percent is achievable for them. “
"But that last 2 percent, under difficult conditions, that's where the difference is made. That's when you also see the difference between someone who has been with a team for a long time and someone who is new. That's not just in the driving but also in the general approach to everything," said the Russian, who raced for Williams in 2018.