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He sounded very downcast after the race in a certain interview. Mercedes must be wondering exactly where they are losing all their race pace and how to rectify the problems going forward. They seem a little lost.

Not as lost as Ferrari.

He has too consider that if Mercedes continue on as the 3rd fastest car then a 34 point lead isn't going to be enough, hopefully that won't be the case though and he can grab 1 or 2 more wins.

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PF1 Pick 10 Competition

2013: 5th Place
2014: Champion
2015: 3rd Place
2016: 4th Place
2017: 9th Place
2018: 7th place

Wins: Canada 2018, Abu Dhabi 2017
Podiums: (6)

Singapore has always been a tough hunting ground for Merc this era, and am I right in thinking Malaysia has also been problematic before? Could just be a bad back to back combination of races for Mercedes.

Exactly this. There seems to be a lot of hysteria being generated when these tracks have never been traditional Mercedes strengths, anyway. I think this whole "Mercedes in trouble" thing is being massively overblown. Watch them surge back to form next race

I can't imagine that Red Bull will be better than Mercedes going forward, only Ferrari and then only possibly and with an edge either way. In other words, I imagine that any advantages that exist won't be big enough for Mercedes to not at least be more in control of the WDC through to the end of the season even if they trail Ferrari. The WCC seems pretty much tied up already.

yep, agree

Ofcourse you would, otherwise the narrative of your agenda would fall apart if Mercedes aren't even the second best car at some tracks.....

Any particular reason for this attack?

Someone taking a particular position doesn't have to have an "agenda." They may well just believe something different to you

As a fan since 2005, Lewis hamilton, you are a 4 time WDC, well done!

Top job, fully deserved as I think he drove the best out of the title challengers and the 2nd half of the season has been near flawless. If he carries on like this it could top 2012 as his best season for me.

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"Clark came through at the end of the first lap so far ahead that we in the pits were convinced that the rest of the field must have been wiped out in an accident."
-Eddie Dennis, describing the dominance of Jim Clark in the Lotus 49 at Spa 1967

Performance today makes sense too as he had a damaged diffuser. Hamilton raced well at the start and should have been P2 probably though Bottas might have challenged for that.

But I think Lewis was very good in 2015 before easing off the gas for the final 3 races after the WDC was sewn up. And I was impressed with areas of growth he displayed in 2016 - became more complete IMO. He didn't win the WDC but I was impressed with Lewis in 2016.

2012 was superb, yeah.

2017 is something to write home about too.

Ah 2005. Arguably his most dominant season in any category. 15 wins in F3 out of 20 races. To think that was 12 years ago. That was also the first time I had heard of Lewis. Saw him race in GP2 the next year though and was immediately impressed.

Anyway it's kind of scary how time flies. I still think of him as a youngster coming into F1 but he's certainly a veteran driver now and he has the CV to prove it. Great accomplishment this year and next year promises to be a real gem with the top three teams all in very similar form at the moment and with McLaren finally completing their 3 year sentence.

Congrats on #4 and I'm looking forward to the next one!

Not a fan (although everyone already knows that ) but he's one of the very best drivers of all time. Congratulations.

Congratulations Lewis Hamilton!!! The best diver in the world!

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Pathfinder

King Lewis 😃😃😃😃

Best driver in F1. Congrats Lewis

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You just need to be accepted for who you are and be proud of who you are and that is what I'm trying to do.
Lewis Hamilton

Anyone with a link of sorts for Lewis' interview with Martin Brundle which was shown pre-race on Sky?

Congratulations Lewis!!! The Best!!!

Yeah Congratulations to Lewis. I saw a more focused driver this past year, more consistent, more in love with his profession. That is the best I have ever seen him drive over an extended period of time. From Singapore last year to today, he has been absolutely on it. Something definitely clicked. I just don't know why or how, but he's had so few lows and so many highs. Thoroughly impressive and deserved WDC.

Congrats Lewis!

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Räikkönen - Vettel - Bottas
Thank you Nico - You´re the champ!

PF1 Pick 10 Competition 2016: CHAMPION (2 wins, 8 podiums)

Without a doubt his best championship, probably his best season depending on how the next 2 races go.

I’m trying to think of a mistake Hamilton made this year and I’m struggling, anyone got one? I know he had a few races earlier in the season where he was a little lacklustre in pace but in terms of an actual error that cost him points I think he may have had the perfect season, mightily impressive if so.

No, I'd agree. I can't think of anywhere you can point to an actual mistake as such

He's done the job. Well done Lewis, fully deserved. You can tell the difference without Rosberg in the team.

Hopefully next year Ferrari will put a bit more of a fight!

It's probably going to hurt them a lot. It's the closest they've come in recent years and it was snuffed through reliability and mistakes made by the driver. I wonder if they miss Fernando Alonso at all. I get the feeling (IF) he was in that car it would have gone to the final race. That's 3 races now where Vettel has compromised his own race through mistakes or over aggressiveness. In the words of MB - it does seem like Vettel was losing his cool.

I think qualifying has hurt him but as we saw with Rosberg - Lewis wasn't always the best qualifier but tend to be more on race day. There's been a few races where he simply didn't do a good enough job on Saturday.

During the race I can't remember him making mistakes this year.

Congratulations Lewis!!! You are a four time World Champion!!!

4 time World Champion and he finally overhauls Jackie Stewart as the most successful British driver, I had to throw that in because of the interview with Sir Jackie were it would be like extracting teeth from him to actually show any genuine praise for Hamilton.

The 5th one is going to be very hard because Mercedes have now lost their domination and may even be on the back foot for next season if they go for the high rake design, which surely they have to do because the present design I would say is starting to ship water, that leaves them having to catch up fast.

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PF1 Pick 10 Competition

2013: 5th Place
2014: Champion
2015: 3rd Place
2016: 4th Place
2017: 9th Place
2018: 7th place

Wins: Canada 2018, Abu Dhabi 2017
Podiums: (6)

Hamilton now becomes the 3rd most successful driver in F1 history.

Behind Schumacher and Fangio?

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PF1 Pick 10 Competition

2013: 5th Place
2014: Champion
2015: 3rd Place
2016: 4th Place
2017: 9th Place
2018: 7th place

Wins: Canada 2018, Abu Dhabi 2017
Podiums: (6)

Nothing like a crash or a spin certainly. Got jumped off the line a couple of times and had that penalty for holding up Dan in Bahrain which is all I can think of error wise.

Bahrain was probably the only truly dodgy performance all year imo. Monaco was more a mistake trying to be too perfect and abandoning runs and then was unlucky Stoff brought the flags out at the end. And Russia was a bit too weird for me to be entirely driver related. I can't fathom why he'd suddenly forget how to drive S3 for an entire weekend, seems a bit weird.

Bahrain he made an error with his DRS in qualifying,got outqualified,got jumped by Seb at the start and got himself a silly penalty. Think Bottas had to be moved out of his way too but might be wrong. Still finished 2nd less than 7s behind.

A great effort overall if that's your worst weekend, 18pts in the bag. Which I think summed up the difference between the two main title rivals this year.

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"Clark came through at the end of the first lap so far ahead that we in the pits were convinced that the rest of the field must have been wiped out in an accident."
-Eddie Dennis, describing the dominance of Jim Clark in the Lotus 49 at Spa 1967

Got out the ruler for that one didn't you lol? None of that can be considered a driving mistake. More just times when things didn't go his way or where he made miscalculations. For example, Vettel being overtaken at Barcelona or Austin are not examples of mistakes nor is his not nailing his Q3 lap in Barcelona. There's a difference between imperfections and mistakes. I don't think Hamilton made an actual mistake all year when it mattered.

BIB-What do you mean?

I think the penalty was a driving mistake, he wasn't unlucky with it and what's a miscalculation if not an error? (But the point was he still got something out of it).

I did mention he didn't crash or spin out though of course.

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"Clark came through at the end of the first lap so far ahead that we in the pits were convinced that the rest of the field must have been wiped out in an accident."
-Eddie Dennis, describing the dominance of Jim Clark in the Lotus 49 at Spa 1967

That wasn't a mistake. He held up Daniel on purpose and it actually worked because otherwise he would have ended up behind him.

(and taking out the ruler is a reference to school teachers being strict)

Ah, got you now. Maybe a little strict when it comes to mentioning the starts but to be fair most of the post is excusing his other poor results in the beginning so it's not like I was going after him. The point about Bahrain was while it was a poor weekend by his standards and imo his poorest of the year he still came away from it with 18pts and keeping the loss down to 7pts. His rival couldn't say the same for his off weekend(s).

Have to disagree about the pen not being a mistake, he'd have breezed past Dan if he'd fallen behind, the RB wasn't the car it is now and he could have challenged for the win if not for that and losing out at the start but probably not the thread to pick the bones out of it fair enough, happy to agree to disagree or carry on in another thread.

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"Clark came through at the end of the first lap so far ahead that we in the pits were convinced that the rest of the field must have been wiped out in an accident."
-Eddie Dennis, describing the dominance of Jim Clark in the Lotus 49 at Spa 1967

In Bahrain, Hamilton still did fall behind DR but nailed him immediately on the SC restart otherwise he may have been in trouble stuck behind him. The Red Bull wasn't what it was now but overtaking was difficult in Bahrain hence Bottas holding up everybody in the first stint. Ricciardo was after all right behind Hamilton in the first stint.

Mistakes or inaccuracies, whatever you want to call them and however you want to use semantic arguments, we can all plainly agree that Lewis has been on top of his game especially since the summer break (or since Silverstone?). I also think he's paid quite heavily and even been unlucky in some of his less perfect outings or with things like the incident in Mexico but at the same time he's had bulletproof reliability so I guess that cancels out. Bottas certainly got away with some stuff for example while compromising others. Vettel has paid quite the price for some of his errors but then he's made several more of them to potentially pay a price for.