Lewis Hamilton can still beat Max Verstappen – United States Grand Prix

It was a fantastic race in Austin, with important battles and shocking moments up and down the grid in yesterday’s race.

Red Bull’s car this year has undoubtedly been one of the best of all time in the sport, and the credit goes to the genius Adrian Newey and those at the factory in Milton Keynes, but yesterday we saw the determination, grit, and greatness from the seven time world champion Lewis Hamilton, who proved, even in a substantially worse car can still pull miracle race pace and challenge at the top.

Granted, Red Bull had an 11 second pit stop which hampered what was going to eventually be an easy win but considering the Mercedes has been consistently four-to-five tenths off of the qualifying pace of those ahead of them, Hamilton’s race pace was simply unbelievable, particularly in the first stint, where he was maintaining a gap of between one or two seconds.

It was welcoming to hear Peter Bonnington (Bono), Lewis’ race engineer come over the radio and say “Hammer Time” again, the iconic quote which elevates Hamilton’s pace to an unstoppable level, and it felt that if his car simply had less drag reduction, which would have increased straight line speed, we could be discussing Mercedes’ first win of the year.

It's been no secret that Lewis Hamilton has sacrificed any consistency in 2022 to experiment with car setups to undo the mistakes the team made with the direction of the car heading into the regulation changes. This certainly explains the point deficit to his new teammate George Russell, but now Mercedes have understood their problems, it has allowed him to challenge more in races, have more consistency and prove his talent.

Anyone who chose to doubt Hamilton is being proved wrong, and if you see how unlucky certain races have been for him, I think it would be foolish to count against him. That Hungary race in mixed conditions where he finished second behind Verstappen proved that both of them are a class above any of their competitors, where you discuss them as greats. It is a privilege that we are able to watch the magic of the two week in week out.

It would be a shame if the only Verstappen vs Hamilton championship was in 2021, which both will admit was quite messy from start to finish, and was tarnished slightly by certain events, but it has only been a few times in the history we have been able to see two legends clash at the top, most notably Ayrton Senna vs Alain Prost in the late 80’s and early 90’s. With Red Bull potentially facing sporting penalties, and Mercedes seemingly have figured out their mistakes, it may not be the last time Hamilton fights for a championship, and I am sure he would dearly love to be factually the best driver in the history of the sport, especially after the events of Abu Dhabi in 2021.

Lewis Hamilton has three more chances to win this season, which agreeably to everyone would be some sort of miracle, but if anyone was to it, it would be him.