Sir Lewis Hamilton is arguably the greatest formula1 driver of all time. He has almost a record possible to his name barring a few. He has most victories (95 wins), most pole positions (98 pole positions) and most podium finishes (165 podiums) in history. He has the record of joint most world championship with 7 world titles that he shares with Michael Schumacher. He currently competes in Formula One for Mercedes, having previously driven for McLaren from 2007 to 2012. He is currently in his 15th season in the pinnacle of motorsport. He has won at least one grand prix every season has competed in.
Below is the list of his most memorable performances in his career:
5. 2014 Bahrain Grand Prix:
It would be a shame not to include a race that highlights one of the biggest rivalries of Hamilton’s career. That is, the one between him and team-mate Nico Rosberg — one that will be rekindled when both helm Extreme E teams in the upcoming sport’s inaugural season. The 2014 Bahrain Grand Prix is the race often seen as really igniting the rivalry.
It came at the dawn of F1’s hybrid era, which Mercedes had entered with an air of utter domination. Hamilton and Rosberg were in a league of their own from the get-go, beginning a race-long tussle that saw the pair attack and defend against each other in incredibly entertaining fashion — thankfully, Mercedes’ team director Paddy Lowe refused to implement team orders that would have prevented the two from racing one another. Rosberg entered the final stages with a distinct tyre advantage but Hamilton held on for dear life, using wheel-to-wheel racing and defensive ability.
4. 2011 German Grand Prix:
Another swashbuckling racer's performance helped Hamilton beat Webber and Fernando Alonso at the Nurburgring in 2011. A stunning qualifying effort - 1.2s faster than team-mate Button - secured Hamilton a surprise front row start. Hamilton then grabbed the lead from Webber at the start, while Alonso's Ferrari soon got the better of Vettel, setting up a three-way battle for victory. Webber's earlier stop then allowed him to jump Hamilton, but the Red Bull couldn't shake off his pursuer. At the second stop, Webber came in first and was hung out to dry when he tried to pass Hamilton as the McLaren emerged from its tyre change. Hamilton then showed how it could be done by passing Alonso, who emerged just ahead after his own stop. The leaders had to change onto the unfavoured medium tyre for the final stint, but Hamilton was able to open up a small gap over Alonso before the crucial stops. He was immediately able to lap faster than Alonso's Ferrari after McLaren's final pit visit and came home 4s clear.
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3. 2020 Turkish Grand Prix:
Hamilton has always had to face the criticism of always winning in the best car on the grid. But all that changed at the Turkish Grand Prix 2020. In an unusual season that was hindered by covid-19, F1 threw in one of the stranger calendars in history. This is the race that Lewis Hamilton had no right to win. The Mercedes W11 was bad in Turkey. The team could not find a setup that worked on a track that had a brand new surface that was leaking its oils all the time. Add in rain and the lack of confidence in the car underneath them left the until then dominant team floundering. Hamilton would qualify sixth, with Bottas three places back in ninth. Nothing about the early laps of the race gave any inclination that the luck of the team based in Brackley was about to change. Hamilton made up no real positions, and when the leaders pitted even seemed to prove that he was no threat, by sliding off track from the lead, and re-joining in sixth when Sebastian Vettel tried to overtake him. But while others then pitted for new tyres as the intermediates began to suffer from overheating issues, Hamilton stayed out on his tyres. Managing to wring more and more pace out of them without damaging them. He passed several cars through not pitting, and then took the lead on track by passing Sergio Perez’s Racing Point. Perez would also go the rest of the race without pitting, but could not come close to matching the pace that Hamilton was somehow extracting from his tyres. When the chequered flag waved Hamilton was over 30 seconds clear at the front of the field, still running the same set of intermediate tyres on a basically dry track – tyres that looked more like slicks than wet weather tyres when he pulled into parc ferme. As if to prove how astonishing Hamilton had been on that day, Bottas suffered a torrid event, ending the race 14th, over a lap down, and having spun six times in the race.
It was the race that made Hamilton a seven-time champion. After the race was over former rival, turned friend Sebastian Vettel expressed what everyone watching was thinking, that it had been a pleasure to watch Hamilton turn in one of the greatest performances of his career, if not in the history of F1. It was one of those days when the argument that “it’s just the car” was not only set aside, but completely smashed to pieces.
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2. 2008 British Grand Prix:
It was the 2008 British Grand Prix where the motorsport world was first told to sit back, relax, and just watch this. It was wet, almost 2000 British GP wet, and Hamilton had qualified only fourth, his Finnish team-mate Heikki Kovalainen taking pole after a scruffy qualifying for Hamilton left him behind the Red Bull of Mark Webber and the Ferrari of Kimi Räikkönen.
Off the line Hamilton shot forward, finding mountains more grip than any of his rivals, and challenged Kovalainen into the first corner at Copse. As Hamilton chased Kovalainen, who had just about retained the upper hand, all hell began to break loose. Webber spun entering the Hanger straight. Then Felipe Massa spun at Bridge, David Coulthard and Sebastian Vettel collided and retired, then Massa spun for a second time. By lap five (yes, all this happened before lap five) Hamilton attacked his team-mate into Stowe, taking the lead and building up a six second lead in the next five laps. At which point Kovalainen spun. Räikkonen took second, and in drying conditions began to close in on Hamilton. Both pitted on lap 21, but Hamilton took on new rubber while Räikkonen did not, hoping to retain the heat and slightly less tread on a drying track. But then it began to rain, Räikkonen couldn’t get his tyres to fire in the wet and joined the rest of the grid in spinning. From then Hamilton was not troubled. He would win the race by over a minute, lapping all but the top three. It was a showcase of extraordinary control and a level head on race day that would come to be a hallmark of Hamilton’s racing later in his career.
1. 2018 Singapore Grand Prix:
Perfection is a myth. It is almost impossible to be perfect but Hamilton’s pole lap at Marina Bay circuit in the Singapore streets is the most complete lap of his career. His lap to take pole must rank not only as one of his best but perhaps one of the best of his generation. Such was the scale and import of his extraordinary performance, his team’s elation was tinged with a sense of disbelief. His Ferrari rival Sebastian Vettel, who could manage only third, was left similarly stunned, almost reeling from a result that seemed unthinkable when qualifying began and it proved to be a pivotal moment in deciding the F1 title in 2018.
“That lap started perfect and it just kept going,” the Mercedes driver said. “It felt magical. It felt like one of the best – if not the best lap I’ve ever done.” Pushing to the limit without touching the walls that are ready to punish the slightest miscalculation is key in Singapore and Hamilton took his car to the edge through every corner. He completed the lap in 1 min 36.015sec but it was the margin of his advantage that was telling. He was three-tenths ahead of Max Verstappen, who was second for Red Bull, and a huge sixth-tenths up on Vettel. If you want to look at a Formula1 car in its full beast mode, look at the on board of Lewis’s lap.
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