The 2019 "slump" behind Hamilton’s Belgian GP power

By:

Alex Kalinauckas

Aug 31, 2020, 3:38 PM

A dominant performance in the Belgian Grand Prix underlined Lewis Hamilton's enviable position in the 2020 F1 world championship. But it was righting an unexpected weakness of 2019 that really set up his crushing weekend at Spa

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It's strange to think that the 2020 Belgian Grand Prix produced only the second Mercedes 1-2 of the Formula 1 season so far, given just how fast its W11 challenger is and how dominant the team's position has looked at times.

In previous events, Mercedes has lost the maximum result to poor starts (for Valtteri Bottas), to penalties (for Lewis Hamilton) and of course to the famous rubber-strewn ending to the first race at Silverstone.

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Alex Kalinauckas

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Alex Kalinauckas is Autosport's Grand Prix Editor, covering every Formula 1 race since the start of 2020. After completing a master's degree in journalism at Goldsmiths College University of London in 2014, he worked for a range of motorsport and technology publications while covering national racing as an Autosport freelancer.

A lifelong motorsport fan - no one in his family can explain quite how or why such a development first occurred - Alex joined the Autosport staff in April 2017 as the magazine’s Assistant Editor covering Formula 2 and GP3, before being made Formula E correspondent and Autosport.com’s Plus Editor in March 2018. He lives in north-east London and is constantly frustrated by the Central Line.