Why Lewis Hamilton Will Bounce Back and Take British Grand Prix Glory
Lewis Hamilton would have been hurting as he departed Silverstone on June 21, 2009.
As the reigning world champion at the time, the British Grand Prix should have been his race.
It should have been a festival, a celebration of all he had achieved across his opening two seasons in Formula One, which saw him come within a point of becoming the first rookie to win the title in 2007, before claiming the championship by the same margin 12 months later.
.jpg?w=256 "Colts Jaguars Football")
Yet at his homecoming, the boy who became King was little more than an afterthought.
The Lewis flags waving from the grandstands in 2007 and '08 had been replaced by tributes to Jenson Button, who with six victories in the opening seven races had become Britain's new hero, the nation's only hope.
As the runaway championship leader, it was Button who was the centre of attention, the man charged with the task of flying the flag. Hamilton, meanwhile, was a forgotten man, impaired by McLaren's MP4-24 car, giving him no hope of defending the title he fought so hard to earn.
And while Button, not for the first nor the last time at Silverstone, failed to live up to the pre-race hype, the Brawn driver's sixth-place finish was far superior to the weekend endured by Hamilton, who qualified on the back row of the grid before spinning en route to 16th, a lap behind race winner Sebastian Vettel.
It was, by some margin, the most degrading race of Hamilton's career and his performing of donuts on the post-race slow-down lap was almost an apologetic act for his failure to repay his admirers with another home win.
He later paid tribute to those spectators—many of whom undoubtedly purchased their tickets the previous winter fully expecting Hamilton to build upon his title triumph—telling the Mirror's Byron Young:
"I want to say a huge thank you to the fans... It's been the biggest crowd for a long long time, and really due to them, all the support, all the noise they make, all the cheering, that's helped to carry me through the weekend.
I hope they know that I pushed my hardest and I'll bring it back to them one day.
"
That day should finally arrive this weekend, when—over six years since his last Silverstone appearance as the champion of the world—Hamilton will return to the home of the British motorsport as the one to beat, the leader of the drivers' standings and with the machinery at his disposal to make up for lost time.
Making up for lost time has, in essence, been the overriding theme of Hamilton's 2015 season.
His self-assured, tranquil performances for much of the opening eight races of the year have been those of a driver determined to right the wrongs of his career until this point, when—through a mixture of unforced errors and sheer misfortune—he failed to make the most of his vast potential.
With "the best car I've driven," as he told the Independent's Ian Parkes, and with his second title triumph in 2014 giving him the confidence, the knowledge that he is the best driver out there, Hamilton has cashed in on the most successful spell of his career.
Yet despite his three wins in the opening four races representing a near-perfect start to his title defence, his gradual decline in form since then—culminating in a scruffy display in Austria—has left Hamilton facing a compelling challenge ahead of the British Grand Prix.
For the first time since last November's Brazilian GP, Hamilton was beaten by his Mercedes team-mate and championship rival, Nico Rosberg, in a straight fight at the Red Bull Ring, where his 45th career pole position was his most fortunate yet after the German's spin on his final qualifying run.
Rather than punishing Rosberg's mistake, the British driver surrendered the lead at the very first corner—albeit at a venue where the grid slot for pole is arguably on the wrong side of the circuit—and was unable to retaliate, following his team-mate to the chequered flag.
Hamilton's five-second penalty for crossing the white line on his exit from the pits on Lap 36 effectively ended the fight at the front and was the kind of elementary, careless error one had assumed had, due to his recent success, been eradicated from his performance.
Unlike in Monaco, where a lack of communication between team and driver cost him victory, Hamilton had—as he had been for so many of his unproductive seasons between 2009 and 2013—been his own worst enemy.
A true measure of how much Hamilton has matured as a driver, though, came in the race immediately after Monaco, in Canada, where he told the Guardian's Giles Richards how he had "moved on" from the disappointment of Mercedes' pit-stop blunder and remained true to his word, taking yet another pole-to-flag victory.
His claims that the memories of Monaco were in the past were one thing, but proving that was the case was an entirely different matter.
Still, Hamilton delivered.
It will be that "what's done is done" attitude that will almost certainly be carried into the British GP, where victory in 2014 was merely another tick in the box en route to his second title triumph.
This time, as a more relaxed, complete performer, Hamilton should be able to enjoy the occasion. He should be able to absorb, and thrive upon, the atmosphere. And he should receive the champion's welcome he would have craved so badly back in '09.
Silverstone will become a shrine on Sunday, and Hamilton, six years after being humiliated at home, will give the public what they want.
.jpg?w=480 "Colts Jaguars Football")
