KEY POINTS:
At Fuji, during last year's rain-soaked Japanese Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton went from being a boy to a man, a racer who could win grands prix in the dry and, now, in the wet.
On Sunday afternoon, as he became the latest great British hero to follow in
the wheeltracks of Jim Clark, Jackie Stewart, James Hunt, John Watson, Damon Hill, Johnny Herbert and David Coulthard to deliver a home victory in front of the world's best-informed fans, he went from man to superman.
"There's no question which driver did the best job at the British Grand Prix n Lewis Hamilton," the triple world champion Sir Jackie Stewart, whose own wet weather exploits included that sensational conquest of the treacherous old Nrburgring in Germany in rain and fog in 1968, when he finished four minutes ahead of his adversaries, said yesterday.
"Lewis is a young and inexperienced driver. A young driver should expect to make mistakes, and Hamilton has made quite a few in the last few grands prix. In four years' time, when he's got more experience and more knowledge, people can criticise him if he keeps making errors. But I don't think he will. At this race he did such a good job n in the most atrocious conditions.
"Silverstone in the wet is harder to drive than, for example, Monaco in the wet. It's faster, which means bigger implications if you make a mistake. So you have to be extremely smooth when you're putting power on, taking power off, introducing braking...absolute finesse is required so that you don't upset the car. In the dry, you can almost be brutal with the car; in the wet, you have to caress it.
"In this race many people went off the track - Felipe Massa spun on five occasions, just by putting the power on far too early and far too hard. But Lewis drove almost flawlessly to win by 68 seconds - an enormous margin - and demonstrated that he's unquestionably the best wet weather driver of this current generation.
"The 'make it happen' moment of the race was when he passed Heikki Kovalainen for the lead on lap five. That gave him an open track ahead of him and, therefore, no spray from a car in front, at a time when the rain was at its worst."
Hamilton's superlative performance swept away the memories of the mistakes that had marred his season hitherto, put him back in the joint lead of the world championship, and left his McLaren team both relieved that their star driver was back and impressed with his ability to overcome a poor run in qualifying and to seize the day.
For a team who have not had a driving world champion since Mika Hakkinen in 1999, Hamilton's ability to rise to the occasion was indeed heartening.
"I can't emphasise enough just how cool and collected Lewis stayed during the race," said the McLaren chief executive officer Martin Whitmarsh.
"He was under immense pressure not only to get a result but also not to make a mistake n in some of the trickiest conditions he has ever driven in.
That he managed to do so with such calmness and presence of mind is astounding n over the radio, it sounded as if Lewis was on a quiet Sunday drive.
He was relaxed and calm; nothing seemed too difficult for him.
After the first stop, we were aware of the situation with Kimi's tyres and duly informed Lewis.
Even before his second stop we urged him to look after the car and measure his pace as a precaution in the weather conditions.
We even recommended he ease his pace into the closing laps and he came back on the radio and told us he was already driving as slowly as he could!
"Those of us involved, and many other people, will remember that drive for the rest of their lives. I'm sure Lewis will too," Whitmarsh added.
Hamilton's relief was evident.
"In the last couple of weeks I have been flat out, working very hard; just a lot of travelling, many different things, many different emotions, a couple of bad grands prix. The country, the crowd and the team deserved it. I thought a one-two was possible. It's just been a great weekend, all in the right direction, no negativity. Things happen for a reason, so I stayed true to my faith. We are here for a reason, so I'm very thankful."
McLaren's form in the race was as worrying for Ferrari as their own strategic blunders, which cost Kimi Raikkonen his chance of victory.
And the aerodynamic changes made to the silver cars for their home race were so effective that Hamilton believes he can now be as competitive everywhere as he was at Silverstone.
British race fans will have another opportunity to see Hamilton when he joins the D™ event at Brands Hatch on 31 August for the eighth round of the international touring car series.
He will demonstrate the Silverstone-winning McLaren-Mercedes MP4-23 during the day.
- THE INDEPENDENT
