How Hamilton changed his game to see off Vettel

You can't win and lose as many races as Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel have without coming to know victory and defeat intimately.

The seasoned general instinctively recognises the significance of every battle, and just as Hamilton's Singapore Grand Prix victory in 2017 was the decisive one in last year's Formula 1 war, so it is again this time around.

Hamilton should now win his fifth world championship. Note the word 'should' not 'will' - for a freak accident, unreliability or unexpected set of circumstances could yet turn the tide. But, right now, every significant factor is on the side of Hamilton.

First and foremost, he's driving superbly. There have been times this season where Hamilton has not been at one with a capricious car that inherited some of the diva tendencies of its predecessor, particularly during the first seven races.

Even during that spell, when the tyre chemistry was right and Mercedes mastered the art of balancing up carcass and surface temperature to get the all-important bulk of the compound working, Hamilton was brilliant. Just think of qualifying in Australia, when he suddenly found more than half a second on his final qualifying lap to blow Ferrari out of the water after getting stuck behind Daniel Ricciardo on the out-lap and fluking the perfect tyre prep. Or the whole Spanish Grand Prix weekend.

During those difficult times, Hamilton was pulling in the points and never lost significant ground to Vettel. While some interpreted his comments about the tricky car as whining, and criticised the perceived arrogance after he inherited victory in Azerbaijan and said he didn't feel he deserved to, they got it all wrong.

Hamilton, particularly once the dust has settled an hour or two after the race, is a reflective and honest character. He knows his game so well that he understands when he's off it and what is required to get back to the top.

That's why he and Mercedes have been able to hit these stunning runs of form mid-season during the past two years. Right now, Hamilton is a driver with no significant weaknesses, as capable of dominating as he is of stealing an opportunistic win or simply ensuring he makes the best of a bad job when the car is not quick enough.

His 40-point championship lead is not insurmountable, mathematically, but Hamilton is relentless right now. That's a word justifiably applied regularly to his old team-mate, Fernando Alonso, but it encapsulates Hamilton too. Every time there has been the tiniest chink in the armour of Vettel and Ferrari, he has driven a Silver Arrow straight through it.

The Ferrari has been the fastest car over a single lap more often than not this year. It's Hamilton who has been decisive in ensuring the points table disagrees. How's that for a definition of greatness?

Perhaps those three years battling with Rosberg, and ultimately losing the 2016 title, have made him into a driver that leaves nothing to chance

At heart, Hamilton is still the same stunningly fast, visceral driver he was when he first set the F1 world ablaze in 2007. But he has also grown battle hardened, worldly wise and canny, adding ever deeper intelligence to his game over the years.

Like all the great drivers, he evolves. There was a time earlier in his F1 career when Hamilton had the air of a man who believed his astonishing pace alone was enough. It was almost as if he considered other aspects of the grand prix driver's game as simple cover to make up for any deficiencies in that area. Then, he was a driver who wouldn't, or perhaps more pertinently couldn't, explain himself.

Early in 2014, Hamilton complained about Nico Rosberg poring over data from his laps. He still doesn't like data sharing, but he appears to have embraced it in a way that has helped him to become even stronger. Given Valtteri Bottas tends to be at his best when Hamilton is struggling most, that's a great way to minimise your losses when things are difficult. You can always learn something.

Today, his more introspective reflections reveal a driver who understands himself and what he's doing thoroughly - even when unhappy with the car after races like China and Azerbaijan.

Perhaps the chastening experience of his three years battling with Rosberg, and ultimately losing the 2016 title, has made him into a driver that leaves nothing to chance. Hamilton himself briefly nodded to that in the post-race press conference in Singapore.

While explaining how the Mercedes team has turned things around, he mentioned: "I give quite long debriefs nowadays", the implication being that in the past he didn't always do so.

This hasn't been a sudden change, but a gradual process exactly as you'd expect for a driver now aged 33. His comments after the race about the way he works with the team are revealing.

"I just had this meeting with the guys, and you can see this energy with everyone," he said. "I find it really inspiring. Considering I've been with the guys for six years, it could be like 'jeez, let's get this over and done with' but they are not. I said 'have you got any questions for me' because I encourage them to ask me questions after the debrief. They dig deep and they find questions. So, the rapport, more than ever, the communication has really been an addition, an improvement, I would say."

His crucial pole position lap in Singapore was symptomatic of the benefits of this rigour. In stark contrast to Ferrari and Vettel, Hamilton and Mercedes were at one in qualifying.

Watch the onboard footage of Hamilton's lap and you can see why it's so good. Firstly, this is a track full of 90-degree turns that allow Hamilton to show his brilliance on turn in, rotating the rear on the brakes to perfection to avoid asking too much of the front end, then controlling the loaded rear tyre on a knife edge.

It's easy for Hamilton to make positive comments in the good times, but even when the going was tougher earlier this year he confidently predicted that Mercedes would get stronger as the season progressed, and he meant it too - it wasn't a platitude.

Hamilton is in that sweet spot where he is still fresh enough to be motivated to put in the enormous amount of effort required to be an elite sportsperson, but has the experience under his belt to know his game inside out. He understands his own strengths and weaknesses and he and the team are in synch. Ferrari and Vettel have not been able to match that, as great a driver as the German is.

Who knows how long Hamilton will remain in this zone? There's no reason why it should end any time soon and, for those who argue some of his Mercedes-era title wins have been too easy, this year's battle has been a strenuous test.

Hamilton is justifiably satisfied by his lack of errors in comparison to Vettel. There have been times earlier in his career, 2011 notably, when there were clear problems with his judgement and the suspicion was that off-track distractions were having an effect. Certainly, there were those at McLaren that believed this to be the case.

Hamilton just seems to be getting better with every passing season

When Hamilton has the odd bad race now, it's easy to default to the idea that he's being distracted by his jet-set so-called 'Hollywood' lifestyle. Hamilton himself alluded to the fact this is an easy stick to beat him with. But in recent years the evidence is that he's struck a good balance.

Hamilton's effectiveness not only reflects a driver capable of dealing with just about any racing situation that is thrown at him, but also a team that knows how to give Hamilton what he needs to thrive.

Vettel knows he doesn't have the same. He has a very competitive car, but a team that is not as together. While Mercedes tries to create simplicity for its star driver - as any good team should - Ferrari creates complexities and distractions. Vettel deserves criticism for his mistakes, but they didn't happen in a vacuum.

But Hamilton just seems to get better with every passing season.

Just look at the numbers. Hamilton has 69 victories and is close to becoming only the third driver in F1 history to win five world championships. You can't achieve that without being a brilliant and rounded driver.

Time and again in recent months we have seen Hamilton seizing on potentially title-winning opportunities. His pace on slicks in the wet in Germany, his Saturday pace in the Hungaroring rain, his pass on Vettel at Monza. Great generals know a key opening when they see it, and Hamilton knows when to force the issue and when to consolidate.

All he needs to do now to win the 2018 title is keep doing what he is doing, avoid mistakes and not suffer from bad luck. That's the final test for any champion in waiting - don't let yourself take your eye off the process of winning races and get distracted by the objective of winning the title.

And when on this kind of form, nobody other than Hamilton makes doing that look so misleadingly straightforward.