3 times Lewis Hamilton was unstoppable in a Mercedes, ft. Brazil 2021
Lewis Hamilton has had the most illustrious of careers at Mercedes. The British driver has won six of his seven world championships with the team and enabled it to clinch eight consecutive world titles from 2014 to 2021. Their partnership will end after 2024, as Hamilton moves to Ferrari next year.
Though there are countless moments of brilliance in Hamilton's career with Mercedes, here are three of them that showcased the seven-time world champion's prowess in the sport.
#1 2020 F1 British GP - Lewis Hamilton wins with a puncture
Back in 2020, Lewis Hamilton was still dominating the sport. He came to his home GP at the height of his powers, taking the pole position against his teammate, Valtteri Bottas. He started the race from the front and led almost every lap of the race. Bottas was right behind him and the Mercedes drivers created a massive gap between them and the rest of the grid.
Bottas had to pit for a fresh set of tires in the latter stages since he was gradually falling behind. After the pitstop, however, he suffered a puncture on his front left tire and started to quickly lose even more places. Seeing a pattern in their data, Mercedes warned race leader Hamilton to also take care of his tires till the end of the race, but it was too late.
On the final lap, Hamilton had a 30-second lead over Max Verstappen and was driving with a puncture. As the Brit limped his way through the Silverstone track, the Red Bull driver pushed hard as he looked to close the gap and overtake Hamilton. However, the Mercedes star won the race after completing the entire last lap on only three tires.
#2 2020 F1 Turkish GP - Lewis Hamilton wins with one-stop in extremely wet conditions
Lewis Hamilton lifted his record-equaling seventh world championship after winning the 2020 F1 Turkish GP. The race in Istanbul was quite difficult for all drivers since it rained heavily at the start of the race. In qualifying, Hamilton managed to secure P6 and had a great start off the line on Sunday.
While several drivers struggled to tackle the first corner, Hamilton controlled the car brilliantly, gaining three places in one go. Soon, however, he went off the track, which cost him those three places that he had gained. On lap 9, Hamilton came into the pits to change from wet tires to intermediates. This was the only pitstop he made in the entire race.
Though many drivers used a one-stop strategy, it was Hamilton who managed to keep pushing forward and win the race on the same set of intermediates.
#3 2021 F1 Brazilian GP - Lewis Hamilton wins from the back of the grid
In the 2021 F1 season, Lewis Hamilton locked horns with Max Verstappen for the drivers' world championship. In the Brazilian GP, Hamilton had a brilliant qualifying session but was booted down to last place for the Sprint race after his car's DRS slot gap was found to have exceeded the allowed opening.
The British driver started the Sprint race on Saturday from the back of the grid, and because of the tight title battle and him being 19 points behind Verstappen, he unleashed all his power to get ahead.
Despite the Sprint race being much shorter than a Grand Prix, Hamilton managed to secure P5. However, the problems for the seven-time world champion did not end there.
He was hit with a five-place grid penalty for the Brazilian GP because of exceeding his quota of internal combustion engines. He started the race from P10, but still managed to plow through the field and win the race, beating his rival.