2) Turkish Grand Prix
It got really difficult at this point to choose which race got the number one spot in my ranking, and in the end I just had to go with the race that I enjoyed the most. So whilst Turkey is the race topping most people’s lists, there was one other that I loved watching more. But lets focus on F1’s bonkers and chaotic return to Istanbul Park. The sport has quite frankly never seen a race like it. Anticipation was high and the Turkish Grand Prix certainly delivered, but not in a way anyone could have predicted. The recently resurfaced track seemed more appropriate for ice-skating than motor racing, with cars drifting and spinning all over the place throughout the weekend. In scenes that looked like they could have been lifted from a vintage episode of Top Gear, on Friday night rental cars lapped the circuit to try and lay down some rubber and rough up the track surface. It was all in vain though, as Saturday and Sunday brought showers that only exacerbated the grip problems. Qualifying was the most nerve-shredding session I have ever witnessed, bringing enough tension to rival the opening scene of Scream. After completely dominating the weekend, Max Verstappen did a Bottas (sorry Valterri) and bottled it at the last minute, unable to switch on his intermediate tyres. Someone who didn’t have that problem was Lance Stroll, who put in an astounding lap and became the first Canadian to score a pole position since Jacques Villeneuve in 1997. This wasn’t the only shock of the session though, as Mercedes had their worst qualifying in 7 years, certainly not what Hamilton wanted as he looked to secure the 2020 driver’s title. The scene was thus set for an underdog win, or at least a non-Mercedes one. But what followed was one of the most stunning displays of Hamilton’s absolute command of Formula 1 racing.
With a perfect getaway for the Racing Points, and a complete nightmare for the Red Bulls, drivers were slipping a sliding up and down the order, Sebastian Vettel making up 7 places on the first lap to provide us with some exciting battles between himself, Albon and Hamilton. Verstappen took himself out of contention for the podium with a misjudged attempt to pass Perez, resulting in one of the many spins we were treated to throughout the race. After leading with a level of composure that belied his lack of experience at the front of the field in an F1 race, Stroll’s fairy-tale weekend unravelled through what appeared to be no fault of his own: unseen damage to his front wing caused him to plummet down the order following a second stop. Though in retrospect, he had already lost the win through that decision to pit. Races with changeable conditions generally provide much better racing than total washouts, due to the necessity for tyre-change gambles. But here we had a totally new scenario – changeable but completely unprecedented and unknown conditions. With the strategists largely in the dark, the drivers had to sense whether it was best to eek out their inters after the first pit stop in case of a switch to slicks, or if more was to be gained through the undercut. As it turned out, neither of these were the optimum choice.
Hamilton and Perez both pulled off something that has never been seen before in F1, and that I doubt we’ll ever see again – wearing down their intermediates until they effectively became slick tyres. Whilst Perez did an amazing job to take home his best result since 2012, Lewis finished a whole 30 seconds ahead of him, at probably the only circuit where the Mercedes did not have a sizable advantage over its rivals. It was the perfect way for the British driver to claim his record-equally 7th Driver’s Championship title, silencing the critics who (foolishly) have claimed his success has only come from him starting at the front in the best car. Whilst Hamilton did slide off the track once or twice, he avoided fully spinning and flat spotting his tyres, and eschewed the kind of dramatic passes attempted by Verstappen for a quietly confident display of true skill. He was able to show off both his expertise at weaving through the field and at controlling the race masterfully from the front. The emotion in his voice as he crossed the line was more than palpable, and it seemed that for multiple reasons, this championship win meant even more to him than any of his previous ones. It seemed fitting that one of the first to congratulate Lewis was the man he has called his greatest rival, Vettel. Whilst many thought Seb would not be seen on the podium again for Ferrari, he put in what was easily his best performance of the year (helped out by a last minute mistake from his teammate) to join a man he clearly has boundless respect for on the podium. If anyone had any doubt surrounding whether Hamilton is the greatest F1 driver of his generation, these doubts were emphatically silenced by the 7 time World Champion in Turkey.
