But Hamilton has seemed more buoyed than at any point since winning four races
on the bounce two months ago.
“I look at it [winning at Silverstone] very positively,” Hamilton said. “It
was a massive turnaround and a real positive. It just shows you that
everything is possible, no matter how difficult or bad it is. Every day
there is a new opportunity and now I see an opportunity to turn things
around while knowing that there is still a long way to go.”
Since Hamilton and Nico Rosberg’s very public falling out in Monaco, the mind
games, the ‘psychological warfare’, has largely disappeared from the radar.
Despite some slightly mangled comments from Hamilton about Rosberg’s
nationality, which were in jest, it has gone quiet between these two. In
place of the soap opera, the rudiments of racing have been allowed to return
to centre stage.
It has developed into a fascinating battle of cool-headedness and speed. At
times, Hamilton has been found wanting with regard to the former. He has
spoken again of his anguish at failing to complete his qualifying lap in
Silverstone.
“It hurt so much,” he wrote in his BBC column. “I could barely get out of the
car, hardly lift my arms. I felt drained of all energy. There was no way I
could sugar-coat it and I very much struggled to do the rest of the day,
speaking to media and doing appearances and so on, because I couldn’t gather
my thoughts together.”
But with Hamilton’s natural speed advantage, he holds the most important
cards. The 2008 champion clearly took a step back after his British Grand
Prix win. Despite two mechanical failures this year, he must have liked what
he saw.
“Looking at the races, I’m confident I’ve got the pace,” he said last night.
“Inevitably it’s very close but I do feel like I had the performances there.
Obviously the car is fantastic and I do have the pace to deliver, it’s just
there is so much pressure there, sometimes you get it and sometimes you
don’t. I don’t need to change too much, just maybe small things.”
Despite the diminished home support – just 50,000 are expected on Sunday, a
third of the Schumacher years – this is the niggling issue for Rosberg.
Even if he is driving exceptionally well, nothing so far this year has done
much to jettison the suggestion that Hamilton is faster. The evidence in
practice on Friday again was that the Briton again marginally had the upper
hand. If he can avoid another qualifying blunder on Saturday, he is quick
enough to upset the German party.
Elsewhere, Susie Wolff had a much smoother run in her second practice outing.
After completing just 21 minutes at Silverstone before a mechanical problem
intervened, here she managed a full session. She set an impressive time too,
just a couple of tenths slower than her team-mate. It was the boost her
Williams team needed after a fire forced them to evacuate their hotel on
Friday night.
“The team was happy with my performance, so that was an important step in the
right direction,” the Scot said. “Now I have to see what is possible.”
Meanwhile, Formula One was forced to cast its eye further east than the Upper
Rhine valley to the crisis in Ukraine on Friday, after the shooting down of
the Malaysian Airlines flight cast further doubt on the viability of the
Russian Grand Prix in three months’ time. People in the sport are waiting
anxiously to gauge the international response to the escalation of the
crisis in eastern Europe.