F1: Hamilton's Second Place in Turkey His Best Race Ever?

I found very interesting to read that Lewis Hamilton rated this second place finish in Sunday's Turkish Grand Prix his best grand prix performance on his whole career.

Usually drivers would categorize a best performance with a win, so it is interesting to hear this opinion from Hamilton.

There are a couple points to draw from this.

One is the strategy McLaren had to choose due to the recommendations from tire company Bridgestone. On Friday practice, the temperatures recorded by Hamilton's tires were higher than normal, and Bridgestone expressed their concern with the longevity of the tires on Hamilton's car.

McLaren chose, with this rationale, to go for a three-stop strategy for Hamilton's car. 

I have not had a chance to do a serious research on this, but three-stop strategies have always been very tricky to pull off. Latest memory I have is Michael Schumacher winning a couple of races with this strategy, along with the help of master race strategist Ross Brown.

Other than Schumy I don't recall the success of this strategy in the last 10 years of F1. It is safe to say that many drivers have fallen victims to this strategy as well. An all-out, aggressive attitude with an impeccable consistency are needed to really reap the benefits of starting with a lower fuel load.

Hamilton's start was superb and definitely ensured he could execute the three-stopper with success, and I am glad to hear that Lewis considers this his best performance.

A great race is not always about winning, and it is fair to celebrate an excellent result achieved in a difficult circumstance.

The second point I want to draw from Hamilton's result is the gap-closing performance we are seeing between McLaren and Ferrari. In the last couple of races we saw a faster Ferrari almost toying with the competition.

But in the Turkish Grand Prix the story was a bit different. We saw the red team having to step up their pace to make sure the McLaren would not take the laurels. I am not sure how much to the limit Felipe Massa had to drive to keep the three- to four-second gap on Hamilton, although he said in the interview after the race that  he was pushed a lot by the McLaren.

Ferraris were so much faster through the speed trap, and also much better through the twisty third sector, than McLaren and the rest. This leads me to believe that Ferraris could have gone a bit faster yet.

All in all, the performances from the top teams and midfield are getting even closer and it should make for a very interesting rest of the championship.