MOTORSPORT: Hamilton wins seventh F1 title

Lewis Hamilton demonstrated his talent and skill in equalling Michael Schumacher’s seven Formula 1 world drivers’ championships with his victory in the at times bizarre Turkish Grand Prix.

On an Istanbul Park track made grip-less by recent resurfacing and cold and wet weather, the Mercedes-AMG driver overcame an early 24-second deficit to leader and surprise pole qualifier Lance Stroll before eventually taking a comfortable 31-second win.

Stroll’s departing Racing Point-Mercedes teammate Sergio Perez was second, with the man who will replace him, Sebastian Vettel, third in his Ferrari.

While Hamilton, who qualified only sixth, struggled to extract grip from his wet tyres in the early going, a switch to intermediates on lap nine proved the trigger for his fightback.

He – like Perez who pitted for intermediates on lap 11 – ran all the way to the chequered flag on lap 58 on those tyres, buffing them down to slicks on the drying (but still damp and unpredictable) surface along the way.

Others lapped faster at different stages, but lost their advantage through spins or stops for fresh intermediates that behaved unpredictably.

Hamilton steamed on, uncannily making his tyres last and mostly staying out of trouble on his way to his 10th win of 2020 and the 94th of his career.

Post-race he not only celebrated his achievement in matching Schumacher, but made it clear he has no intention of retiring.

“I’d love to stay, I feel like we’ve got a lot of work to do here,” he said.

“I am working to push to hold ourselves accountable as a sport, to realise we’ve got to face and not ignore the human rights issues that are around in the countries that we go to, and how can we engage with those countries, and how can we empower them to really change, not 10 or 20 years from now, but now.

“And I want to help Formula One, I want to help Mercedes in that journey to become more sustainable. I hope to be a part of that, at least the initial phase, for a little bit longer.”

Mercedes-AMG has now won seven drivers’ championships in a row, to go with its seventh constructors’ championship wrapped up in Portugal two weeks ago.

However, Stroll’s pole meant it lost the chance to achieve a qualifying lock-out for the season.

Hamilton’s teammate Valtteri Bottas, the only driver with even a sliver of a chance of keeping the title fight alive going into the race, qualified only ninth and suffered six spins and car damage on his way to 14th place.

Red Bull-Honda’s Max Verstappen – a pacesetter throughout the meeting – finished only sixth after several pit stops and spins, including a high-speed rotation on the back straight in which he flat-spotted his intermediate tyres.

He was one position ahead of teammate Alex Albon, whose future with Red Bull continues to come under pressure from Perez.

The Mexican actually lost second place to Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc on the last lap only to regain the position when the Frenchman outbraked himself, allowing Vettel to also slip by for his first podium since the 2019 Mexican Grand Prix.

Stroll’s run at the front ended when he pitted for a second set of inters on lap 37 and he dropped to ninth by the end, one place ahead of Aussie Daniel Ricciardo, who was never a factor in his Renault after qualifying fifth.

“When we switched to the intermediate tyres … we just couldn’t make them last,” lamented the carsales global ambassador.

“There were moments during the race when I was told I was one of the fastest out there, then just a few laps later my tyres were completely gone so it was all a bit of a lottery.”

Ricciardo tapped his teammate Esteban Ocon into a spin in the first corner, the Frenchman fighting back to 11th.

But with Perez on the podium and McLaren-Renault’s Carlos Sainz fifth and teammate Lando Norris eighth, Renault has dropped back from third to fifth in the constructors’ title.

The F1 season wraps up with three races in the Middle East, starting with the Bahrain Grand Prix on November 26-29.