Picking out the top 10 F1 wins for the 7 times World Driver's champion Lewis Hamilton in his career.
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The words “Still I Rise” are inscribed on the back of Lewis Hamilton‘s helmet and tattooed across his shoulders. Ever since shattering expectations with one of the greatest rookie performances in Formula One history in 2007, he has done nothing but rise: surpassed his idol Ayrton Senna for the most pole positions, surpassed Michael Schumacher for the most victories, and then tied the legendary Gerhard Berger for most wins. Is he the best ever? Few people would contest his presence in the discourse, and he’s doing it in his own unique manner by combining his unrelenting speed with a reluctance to adhere to preconceived notions about what a racing driver should think, look like, or act like. In Formula One, respect must be earned, but Hamilton—now known as Sir Lewis Hamilton—has it from every one of his competitors. Why? They know that when his visor drops and the lights go out, it’s Hammertime regardless of the track, the weather, or the circumstance.
At the Russian Grand Prix in 2021, the British driver will remarkably have accomplished a century of world championship victories in Formula One. He needed 281 races and little over 14 years to complete it, during which time he also amassed 101 pole positions, 57 fastest laps, and seven world championships. At the 2020 Portuguese GP, Hamilton had already eclipsed Michael Schumacher’s mark of 91 triumphs, and he hasn’t slowed down on the way to a century of victories. When Hamilton made his racing debut in 2007, no one could have predicted that he would go on to become the first driver to ever win 100 races. The fact that the seven-time World Champion has won a race in each of the 15 seasons he has participated in has undoubtedly contributed in that accomplishment.
Following difficulties at McLaren as Vettel notched up win after win, Hamilton’s move to Mercedes seemed audacious. Although it now appears to have been a brilliant move, the first season of the pairing was not without its difficulties, such as the 2013 British GP’s tyre failure. Unexpectedly, Hamilton’s maiden victory came at the scorching-hot Hungaroring when his F1 W04 did not consume its rear tyre as was expected. In addition to the tyres enduring, a no-nonsense pass on Jenson Button’s McLaren made right after Hamilton pitted from the lead was essential to his victory. Button was a tougher nut to crack for Vettel and Romain Grosjean (Lotus), Button’s key competitors. Vettel, who had been 1.7 seconds behind Hamilton, had fallen 13.4 seconds behind Hamilton by the time the McLaren pitted, 13 laps after Hamilton had passed.
Following the second Mercedes pit stop, Hamilton overtook Mark Webber with a comparable amount of force. In a complex and thrilling battle for second place, Raikkonen’s Lotus prevailed, but Hamilton won his maiden race for Mercedes by 11 seconds. Teammate Nico Rosberg was battling for seventh after a disastrous first lap when his engine failed. Even on his fastest lap, he was nearly a full second slower than Hamilton.
When Formula One made its maiden trip to Austin, Vettel was already well on his way to winning his third straight championship while Hamilton had already been eliminated from the 2012 title contest. But because Hamilton frequently masters a new circuit first, he qualified alongside Vettel’s Red Bull on the front row. Red Bull’s Webber dropped Hamilton to third place at first, but the McLaren eventually reclaimed second on lap four of 56 and drew away. The McLaren was just two seconds back after Hamilton and Vettel completed their single stops, with Raikkonen’s Lotus, which had not yet stopped, separating them.
On lap 24, just as Raikkonen was about to enter the race, Hamilton used DRS to overtake Vettel, who had a lead of 2.4 seconds. The British driver tried to overtake Vettel, but the Red Bull was able to outrun him in the critical spots thanks to its quickness. That lasted up until lap 42, when Vettel overtook Narain Karthikeyan of the sluggish HRT in the twisty and constrained sector between Turns 3 and 7. Now that Hamilton was in range, he used DRS to simply blow by on the outside as they were travelling down the back straight. “I knew I had to grab my chance, so I turned the engine up to maximum revs and pushed like crazy,” said Hamilton, who was rewarded for his dogged and relentless pursuit.
At the Nurburgring in 2011, Hamilton defeated Webber and Fernando Alonso thanks to the efforts of another daring driver. After switching from Carbone Industrie brakes to Brembos, Hamilton surprised everyone by qualifying 1.2 seconds faster than teammate Button. The race therefore quickly became a three-way duel for first place as Hamilton overtook Webber for the lead at the outset and Alonso’s Ferrari quickly defeated Vettel. The Red Bull driver was able to pass Webber at the last corner on lap 12 of 60 after the McLaren driver made a slight error entering the chicane. But Hamilton made sure he had a strong start and finish line and reclaimed the lead on the sprint down to Turn 1.
Due to Webber’s earlier stop, Hamilton was able to vault over him, but the Red Bull was unable to escape his pursuers. When the McLaren came out of its tyre change at the second pit stop, Webber tried to pass Hamilton but was left hanging. Following his own stop, Hamilton passed Alonso to demonstrate how it could be done. Before the important stops, Hamilton was able to widen his lead over Alonso despite the fact that the front-runners had to switch to the less-favored medium tyre for the final stint.
Despite securing a comfortable pole position in 2008 with the upgraded MP4-23 and Hamilton, McLaren’s strategy required him to put on a strong performance. Things went smoothly at first. After 35 of the 67 circuits, Hamilton was in the lead and had a lead of 11.8 seconds over Felipe Massa’s Ferrari. The safety car was then deployed as a result of a suspension breakdown in Timo Glock’s Toyota. Strangely, McLaren chose not to pit Hamilton even after the rest of the field had left the race because the team believed that Hamilton would have enough time to close the distance before the safety car period ended. Wrong. Only nine laps separated the start of the race and Hamilton’s second pit stop. With 17 circuits remaining, he finished fifth despite having taken off at the restart.
Heikki Kovalainen, a teammate who had been having pacing issues all weekend, didn’t present too much of a challenge. Neither did Nick Heidfeld, who tried a similar tactic in his BMW and quickly lost. However, Nelson Piquet Jr. and Massa, who is vying for the championship, were in front after a superbly executed stop that put him in the lead. On lap 57, Hamilton passed Massa to take over second as he was having braking issues. He now behind the leading Renault by 2.1 seconds. Within two laps, Hamilton was on Piquet’s gearbox and, on lap 60, he resumed his proper position at the front after hitting the inside of the Renault at the Spitzkehre hairpin.
Emotions were running high in Monaco following the passing of Niki Lauda, who had played a crucial role in convincing Hamilton to join the Silver Arrows. And this time, Hamilton’s situation was made more difficult by a Mercedes strategic blunder. All appeared to be going according to plan for him after he won a superb pole position, but on lap 11 of 78, the leaders were hauled in by a safety car period. Max Verstappen’s car will have hard tyres from Red Bull, while Lewis Hamilton’s will have medium Pirellis from Mercedes. On lap 15, the race resumed, allowing Hamilton the opportunity to drive a massive 64-lap stint on the softer compound. Hamilton voiced his annoyance over the radio, but it didn’t stop him from putting in a smart effort, managing the rubber and avoiding making mistakes while keeping Verstappen, who is perhaps the most aggressive driver on the grid, behind him. Verstappen was given a 5-second penalty for slamming into Bottas during the pit stops, which gave him added incentive to catch Hamilton.
On lap 76, he finally launched his major assault. In order to attempt an audacious move down the inside into the chicane, Verstappen had to get close to the struggling Mercedes. By straightening up as the Red Bull approached, Hamilton showed off his sixth sense-like racecraft, lessening the impact of the impending collision and enabling the Mercedes to maintain its lead. It was simple to envision a more disastrous collision if any other driver in the field had been in the leading vehicle.
In China, Hamilton barely made it in time to start third after his McLaren initially faltered. That didn’t stop the top three from separating as Hamilton and teammate Button jumped both McLarens and Vettel’s Red Bull. However, McLaren suffered a setback during the initial round of pit stops as Hamilton dropped to fifth. Things didn’t settle down until the very end, with the leaders using a variety of two- and three-stop strategies due to the weak Pirelli tyres. On the track, Hamilton had a lot of work to do.
Before his third and final stop, Hamilton dove down the inside of Button in the first bend. After everyone had pitted, Hamilton was so in fourth place. With 12 circuits remaining, he caught and passed Rosberg’s Mercedes before beating Massa’s Ferrari. He was still 4.6 seconds behind leader Vettel at that point. The McLaren just needed six laps to catch the Red Bull. Vettel put up a strong fight, but Hamilton overtook him on lap 52 of 56 with a daring drive into the fast Turn 7. Report stated, “It was another lovely—and quite unconventional—move that caught Seb completely off guard.
The third race of the 2014 season ranks highly because it shows that Hamilton can prevail despite not being the fastest. He beat teammate Rosberg in a race that served as a precursor to their upcoming conflicts. Rosberg started the race in the championship lead, won the pole, and recorded the fastest lap, but finished second. As soon as Hamilton’s #44 Mercedes was able to take the lead on the inside on the run to the first corner, everything started going wrong for Rosberg. Once well outside the playing area, Rosberg attacked Hamilton. Lewis was dive-bombed by him into Turn 1 on lap 19, but he was unable to halt it, and Hamilton passed Lewis on the exit before making his pit stop.
For his second stint, Rosberg chose the slower medium tyre, but he demonstrated his speed by only losing a tiny amount of time to his teammate who was wearing soft shoes. That implied that when they pitted for the last time and essentially switched compounds, he would retaliate against Hamilton. Even a safety car period during the second stops was helpful to Rosberg. He had 11 laps to close the gap rather than needing to utilise some of his tyre advantage to cut into Hamilton’s lead, which had increased to almost 10 seconds. Additionally, energy from the hybrid systems was used, and Rosberg repeatedly assaulted only to be repelled. With six laps remaining, he put out his best effort by diving up the inside of Turn 1 and battling all the way to Turn 4. On the next tour, he attempted again, but each time Hamilton was able to position his car correctly to come out ahead, albeit just barely. Hamilton remarked, “How I was using my power and how I was positioning my car felt like one of the best-calculated races I’ve ever had.”
A pointless critique of Hamilton is that he drives the greatest car, but great athletes typically do, and he has had plenty of victories against the odds. The most illustrative instance may have occurred when Schumacher and Hamilton both won seven world championships. Although Hamilton’s Mercedes W11 is perhaps the best F1 vehicle ever, it wasn’t at its best on the slick Istanbul Park track. With teammate Bottas down in ninth after qualifying only sixth in the wet, Hamilton ran there in the early going after a slight excursion onto the runoff ruined his strong start. However, he didn’t become anxious, and as he let the race come to him, his maturity was evident. Hamilton made a pit stop at the conclusion of lap eight of 58 to switch from his extreme wet tyres to intermediates. When the Ferrari made a second pit stop and the Red Bulls driven by Verstappen and Alex Albon spun, Hamilton, who was battling Vettel, gained positions.
Hamilton was now third, behind Perez and Lance Stroll in the Racing Points standings. And now that he had taken care of his tyres while swiftly lapping and catching up to the leaders, he was much satisfied with them. Hamilton easily passed Perez to grab the lead on lap 37 while Stroll took a second stop for a new set of inters. Hamilton won by 31.6 seconds, the third-largest margin of victory in his Formula One career, after maintaining his first set of inters throughout the entire 50-lap race to the finish line. After six spins, teammate Bottas was lapped in 14th place.
Despite having the fastest vehicle, at least in qualifying, Ferrari’s home field did not go smoothly. In addition to choosing to inform the Finn that his services would not be needed in 2019 prior to the race, the team elected to put Raikkonen on pole position rather than title challenger Vettel. Perhaps it came as no surprise that Raikkonen chose to make it difficult for Vettel to take the lead early on. Vettel appeared agitated, but he continued to pay attention to his teammate as they entered the second chicane on the inside line. Hamilton manoeuvred to the outside, entered the left portion of the chicane, and took the long way around the Ferrari with his customary opportunism. After the safety car period, Hamilton easily took the lead, but Raikkonen was in one of his more belligerent states. After picking up the tow, he reclaimed the lead and drove around the outside, toward the second chicane. For the remainder of his stint, Hamilton pursued Raikkonen, coming to a stop significantly later than Kimi—lap 28 to Kimi’s lap 20. He re-entered 5.7 seconds down, albeit on fresher rubber.
Bottas was left out by Mercedes, and he is now keeping Raikkonen at bay so that Hamilton can close the gap. More significantly, the left-rear tyre blister on the Ferrari also started to cause problems. Even when Bottas finally stopped, Hamilton was still in Raikkonen’s wheeltracks due to less severe front blistering. Hamilton overtook the Ferrari down the start/finish straight at the conclusion of lap 44. Hamilton braked later and finished the move around the outside and into the first chicane while Raikkonen defended on the inside. The Mercedes then pulled away to win by 8.7 seconds over Raikkonen at the finish line. In the battle for the championship, Vettel finished fourth and fell farther behind.
“It’s performances of that calibre that make legends,” said Autosport after what remains Hamilton’s most dominant performance in Formula 1. Hamilton, who is just in his second F1 season, displayed one of the most spectacular wet-weather performances at his home grand prix at Silverstone in dreadful circumstances. And one that didn’t require a lot of luck, unlike his victory in Monaco in 2008. Hamilton had fallen to fourth in the standings after a series of disappointing races, including his infamous pitlane mishap in Canada, and needed a strong weekend to catch up. Starting from position two, Hamilton had a great run and came within inches of passing teammate and polesitter Kovalainen at Copse.
Hamilton put pressure on his teammate during the first lap as more seasoned drivers like Webber and Massa rotated. Lewis, who was obviously faster, passed Kovalainen on lap five into Stowe when the Finn made things simple for him when he began to have issues with his tyres. Hamilton was quicker and more gentle on his tyres despite having issues with a misting visor that he constantly needing to clear. When Kovalainen spun and Raikkonen’s Ferrari moved into second and began reducing the deficit, he faced a new challenge. The top two finished side by side. McLaren gave Hamilton a new set of tyres and a little more fuel, but it still managed to put its man in front while Ferrari maintained Raikkonen on the same set of inters.
As they left, the rain started up again, which benefited Hamilton since new intermediates performed better as the water level rose. After the stops, after five laps, Raikkonen was 22 seconds behind. Despite a brief break at Abbey when the rain picked back up, that was the last anyone saw of Hamilton. When McLaren made its second pit stop, the fastest drivers on the track were using extreme wet tyres. On severe rubber, Hamilton was three seconds slower than the best but on intermediates, he was substantially faster than the competition. As the track dried, he didn’t need to stop again to switch back to inters, and as a result, his lead expanded steadily. Even so, McLaren commanded him to slow down. Hamilton retorted, “If I go any slower I’ll lose concentration.”
