Palmer: Hamilton will be among the favourites in Hungary

Jolyon Palmer competed in Formula 1 in 2016, when Lewis Hamilton fought with Nico Rosberg and only lost the title to his team-mate in the season finale, and in 2017, when the Mercedes driver became world champion for the fifth time. Six and a half years later, Palmer, now a pundit for the championship’s official website, commented in highly enthusiastic terms on Hamilton’s recent victory in the British Grand Prix…

Hamilton’s win at Silverstone was a masterpiece, but Lewis should also be among the favourites in Hungary. When he starts the British Grand Prix, he should always be considered one of the contenders for victory. Moreover, the form his team is in at any given season is no longer so important. Silverstone simply suits him perfectly – thanks to the fast nature of the track, the support of a whole sea of ​​fans, as well as the English weather, which is notoriously unpredictable.

Last Sunday he won for the 9th time on his home track and stood on the podium for the 12th time in a row. Given that his previous two seasons were not very rosy, such statistics suggest that he can always excel at this stage of the championship, no matter how the year as a whole goes.

It looks like the Mercedes team is back in the fight, as this is the second win in a row after a long break, although George Russell’s success in Austria came somewhat unexpectedly. George and Lewis are world-class drivers and filled the front row on Sunday.

Russell has generally been quicker than his team-mate in qualifying this year, but race pace is a different story, with Hamilton often outperforming him, albeit not by much. In a race after a poor qualifying, however, he usually has too many problems to solve.

But this time the two Mercedes cars were side by side on the front row, and there was obviously a good chance that a fierce rivalry would develop between the two drivers for victory on their home circuit. At the same time, however, they still had to hold off the attack from McLaren and Max Verstappen, who started from the back.

Russell made a good start and led the first few laps, but the light drizzle intensified and the race changed completely. We know how well Hamilton performs in these conditions, and he showed his skills again on lap 18, staying on slicks even though it was already quite wet.

When grip drops dramatically, the driver struggles to keep the car on the track, especially the one at the front who hits the wettest parts of the track first. We saw Hamilton run wide at Abbey shortly after he overtook Russell to take the lead.

Lewis hadn’t quite realised how bad the grip had become at that point, but Russell and Oscar Piastri also left the track behind. The one behind at least sees the approaching danger area a little earlier and has a little more time to react.

But Lewis was generally closer to the edge of what was possible in the wet than George – it was clear that Russell was a little more cautious. Hamilton drove with the same skill and confidence that he had shown so often in the past.

With Hamilton ahead of his team-mate, the path to victory was open. Without this crucial overtake on lap 18, it is difficult to predict how he would have fought off Verstappen and Norris, as he was now first in line at the first pit stop as Mercedes called both cars back into the pits, one after the other, and Lewis rejoined the track behind the reigning world champion.

In theory, McLaren and Mercedes had an advantage as they both had two cars against Verstappen’s one RB20, but everyone started to experience some kind of problems.

Norris and Verstappen would have had a better chance of winning than Hamilton if he had not overtaken his teammate on lap 18.

Once Max was in the pits on intermediate tyres, while both McLaren and Mercedes remained on track, it became clear that one of the drivers from the two teams would be at a tactical disadvantage. And in both teams, the advantage was given to the one driving ahead of his partner.

And while Hamilton relied on his trusted grip and confident wet-road driving for the critical overtake of Russell, he beat Norris in the pit lane thanks to experience and decisive teamwork with Pete “Bono” Bonnington, his race engineer.

The working relationship between Lewis and Bono has developed over the past decade, and this is most palpable in the way they understand each other and how they handle difficult situations, including at Silverstone, when victory was on the line.

While McLaren hesitated at the pit wall, unable to decide which tyres to put on Norris and when, Lewis and his team acted very clearly.

It is not easy for a driver in such conditions. The choice of the moment to visit the pits depends on him, since he is the one who feels how the car holds the track, so he knows when the opportunity arises to return to slicks, for example. But it is difficult for him to perceive the overall picture of the race, because he is not aware of everything that is happening on the track.

McLaren trusted Norris too much to decide which tyres to change to, and didn’t think carefully enough about at what point to do this – unlike Mercedes, where they already knew a set of soft tyres would be fitted to Lewis’ car, and they just had to get it right, pick the moment.

Bono acted decisively and called his driver into the pits on lap 38 – this was what determined the outcome of the Grand Prix. It was this decision that caused Verstappen and Piastri, who were driving behind Lewis, to also pit.

Usually in such situations the slower driver is called into the pits first, who, after being given slicks, must confirm that this choice was correct, but Hamilton and Mercedes had to show courage (Russell had already retired by then due to technical problems) – and this brought them success.

Hamilton’s final challenge was to maintain the performance of the soft tyres, which he did with ease – again unlike Norris. Lando was desperately trying to correct a tactical error he had made with the McLaren team on track, which had seen his Soft kit wear out quite quickly when he was driving in the disrupted air zone behind the rival cars.

And even though almost 1000 days have passed since Lewis Hamilton’s last victory, but when the driver has more than a hundred victories to his name, he cannot forget how to act to achieve success. The seven-time world champion kept a fairly high pace, also managed to save tires to resist Max, who overtook him at the end of the race, and finally achieved this magnificent victory.

Surprisingly, six different riders have reached the top step of the podium in the first twelve rounds of the season, indicating that the level of competition is very high this year.

Hamilton has always shone at Silverstone, but he usually performs very well at the Hungaroring. Incidentally, it was at the Hungarian circuit that he won his last pole in Formula 1. We can expect him to be one of the main contenders for success in the next phase of the season for Mercedes.