Dodgy Business

I can still remember the buzz I had coming back from Donington in 1993. A lifelong sports enthusiast, I knew I'd seen something special that day. In truth, when you are fortunate enough to be able to attend most Grands Prix, with access to timing data, Ayrton Senna made you feel that way many times, irrespective of dominant victory or stunning performance in a car that couldn't win.

He had an instant feel for grip level and, when it rained, would be at the limit of track conditions within a lap, while others would take four or five. Many times it would translate into a 15-20s advantage over five or so laps. Michael Schumacher was the same, Barcelona '96 being one of the best examples. Yes, he might have had a spare car set up for the rain but that kind of talent is still awesome to behold.

Following the nuances of a changing-conditions race like Silverstone live, is nigh on impossible. Only when you sit down at length with race history charts and timing information does the true picture begin to emerge.

Lewis Hamilton leads down the front straight at Silverstone © LAT

I've heard people accuse Bernie Ecclestone of deliberately scheduling the British GP on the same day as the Wimbledon men's singles final just to give Silverstone a hard time. Whether there's any truth in that, I don't know, but it's certainly not great if you are an F1 reporter and a tennis fan. When Federer scraped the third set tie-break I phoned home and asked my other half to press the Sky+ record button.

Managing to ignore the banter between the Swiss and Spanish journos, I got out of the press room without knowing anything further and drove the three hours home without the radio. I did some more work, made a cup of tea and put on the last two sets. By the time I went to bed at approaching 2:00am the buzz was exactly the same as it had been coming back from Donington 15 years ago. To witness performances like those served up by Lewis Hamilton and Rafa Nadal within hours, was akin to an overdose.

How great were those performances? And how similar?

It goes without saying that those who scale the sporting heights have natural ability. But it's not enough. To the mix, add hard work and mental steel. The cerebral side, the psychology of competition, is probably most important of the lot..

Sport is littered with tales of unfortunate chokers. Like poor Doug Sanders, who, at 37, had an 18 inch putt to win the 1970 Open golf championship. He missed it. Next day, predictably, he lost a play-off against Jack Nicklaus. The Golden Bear retired with 18 majors to his name. Sanders never won a major - he finished runner-up four times.

And who can forget Jana Novotna, 4-1 up and 40-15 against Steffi Graf in the '93 ladies singles final at Wimbledon. A serve/volleyer unusually, she had executed her game plan to perfection against strong favourite Graf that day.

And then, within touching distance of the trophy, the mind played tricks, she tightened, volleys she'd been playing in her sleep missed wildly, a simple overhead went into the tarp at the back of the court and her moment was gone. Steffi ate her up and Jana was left to cry on the shoulder of the Duchess of Kent. Happily she came back five years later and beat France's Nathalie Tauziat to claim what would remain the only grand slam title of her career.

How did Nadal, who had lost the previous two men's finals to Federer, recover from blowing the third set tie break when he was 5-2 with two serves to come? By the time it was two sets apiece you'd have put your house on Federer coming through. The delight was that neither of them choked. Federer was reportedly distraught in the locker room afterwards, so much had he wanted to beat Borg's record of five consecutive singles titles. Bjorn had looked impassively down on him for almost all of the near five hours the marathon took. But Federer didn't lose it, Nadal won it, which is what made it the brilliant spectacle it was.

Hamilton coped with pressure of a different sort. While Nadal had gone to Wimbledon after blowing Federer away in straight sets on his favourite Paris clay, Hamilton had been criticised for his mistakes in Montreal and Magny Cours.

Heikki Kovalainen took his first pole position © LAT

Expectation can overtake reality and the fact is that Hamilton had still only driven 25 GPs when he went to Silverstone. He'd been accused of arrogance in some areas of the media, he'd been accused of not focusing on the right things and, you sensed, it was almost as if some were willing him to blow it again. For the sake of a good story.

In qualifying he'd had to give best to Heikki Kovalainen. This was interesting. Last year, the higher speed tracks -- Silverstone, Spa and Monza - were the places he couldn't match Alonso. And now, at his home race, with the pressure on, his team mate was setting the pace. A wobble on his first Q3 run showed you how hard Lewis was trying. Had the race been dry, who knows what might have happened. Anthony Davidson, analysing for Five Live had no doubts. If it's dry, he said on Saturday night, it's Kovalainen's race.

I asked Lewis if there was a pattern but he wasn't going there. It would be fatuous to suggest it's in any way an ability thing in high speed corners. More likely it's to do with driving style and the make-up of F1's control tyres. The flat-out, long Turn 8 in Turkey gives you a clue - Lewis was rooting his tyres to the extent that he had to run a three-stop race, and Heikki wasn't.

Lewis's message to his crew on the slow down lap was revealing. "It's been a tough weekend," he acknowledged, "but we've done it. Thanks guys!" The relief was almost palpable.

"I can't emphasise enough just how cool and collected Lewis stayed during the race," McLaren's Martin Whitmarsh said. "He was under immense pressure not only to get a result but also not to make a mistake - in some of the trickiest conditions he has ever driven in. That he managed to do so with such calmness and presence of mind is astounding. Over the radio it sounded as if Lewis was on a quiet Sunday drive - he was relaxed and calm; nothing seemed too difficult for him."

When you look at the story of the race in detail, take nothing away from Lewis whatsoever because Whitmarsh's assessment is spot on, but practically everyone else -- driver, team or both -- got it wrong somewhere. Rubens Barrichello and Honda are the exception and even they had a fuel rig problem which prevented Rubens finishing second.

Senna was a hero to Lewis and when you saw how close Hamilton and Kovalainen came to a collision at Turn 1, you worried that Lewis, like Ayrton at Donington, trying and do it all on lap 1. What it means to drive on a high speed track in blinding spray hit home too. Mark Webber's spin coming onto Hangar Straight might have prompted a lifted right boot or two, and anyone behind Webber when he spun was more than 5s adrift at the end of the opening lap.

Lewis took the lead on lap 5 and by the time Raikkonen passed Kovalainen on lap 10, was 6s in front. But Kimi was flying too. By the time they pitted together 11 laps later, the Finn was on the McLaren's gearbox. Lewis had been lapping in the 1m33s bracket and dipped into the 1:32s, a pace also being run by Kimi and the recovering Webber.

Lewis Hamilton overtakes Heikki Kovalainen for the lead into Stowe © XPB

When Ferrari did not change tyres and the rain started to fall again, Kimi was 5s off the pace, his challenge effectively over. Jarno Trulli, who took fresh intermediates five laps after Hamilton, was the fastest car on the circuit between laps 31 and 33 when the rain started to intensify. When it got really heavy Jarno was a couple of seconds slower than Lewis as he struggled with aquaplaning and Webber, having pitted for fresh intermediates 10 laps after his first stop, was now lapping in 1:43.1 versus Lewis's 1m46.4.

Trulli had been asking for extremes but Toyota had gone with intermediates.

"Jarno was fuelled for a one-stop race and the target was to go long enough to switch to dry tyres," Pascal Vasselon explained. "That's why we delayed spitting but then we realised that the rain was not stopping. We had seen Ferrari stop and struggle after not changing tyres, so it was a no-brainer for us to put on intermediates.

"Clearly, the heavy rain was too heavy for intermediates but it didn't last very long. The reason we didn't stop again for extreme wets is that with people going off and crashing, we were expecting a Safety Car. In that situation you keep running because otherwise you lose too much time. But the Safety Car didn't come. The really surprising thing after that was how long it took the track to be suitable for intermediates."

Honda got the call absolutely right with Barrichello and Button, as did Williams with Rosberg and Nakajima, and Toro Rosso with Bourdais, who all stopped on lap 35. On lap 37, Lewis's final lap before his second stop for fresh intermediates, he lapped in 1:54.6. Trulli, on newer inters, did 1:51.9 and Barrichello did 1:41.24 on his extremes!

Hamilton, at that point, had a 26.5s lead over Nick Heidfeld's BMW, which also pitted on lap 38. The safe play for McLaren may have been to put Lewis on extremes to protect him from Barrichello and minimise the chances of him dropping it, but, had the track dried quicker, he would have needed to pit again for normal wets and would have been vulnerable to Heidfeld.

Rubens took 15s out of Lewis over the next six laps and the call was undoubtedly the right one for Honda. It would probably have worked for Lewis too, but you can never second guess the weather with any accuracy and bear in mind Vasselon's words on the track taking longer to dry than expected.

"We knew there was heavier rain forecast for the middle sector of the race and it was fortunate that the heaviest rain showers were only brief," Whitmarsh admits. "That coincided with one of the busiest and most chaotic sectors of the race as many drivers struggled to cope with the standing water. Just before Lewis's second stop, he actually questioned over the radio whether it was worth switching to extremes and we reassured

him that our weather forecast was predicting the rain would clear up. Happily that proved to be right. We even recommended he ease his pace into the closing laps but he came back on the radio and told us he was already driving as slowly as he could!"

Nick Heidfeld turned in a consistent performance for second place © LAT

You can see Whitmarsh's point. Remember that Heidfeld and Hamilton made their final stops on lap 38, so had tyres in a similar condition. On lap 44, with the track still very wet, Lewis lapped in 1m40.8s and Nick in 1m46.6. Webber was 2,2s away from Hamilton's pace, and Kimi 3.1s. On lap 47 Webber actually went faster than Lewis had lapped at any point since taking fresh tyres, but he spun on his next lap.

You get into a rhythm, Lewis explained, and sometimes it's actually harder to slow down. Rubens said much the same thing when his engineer, Jock Clear, suggested he didn't need to take risks.

How good was Lewis? Tremendous. As I said, practically everyone screwed up somewhere along the line. Alonso, you would have expected to be a threat, for example, but like Ferrari and Red Bull, Fernando and Renault hadn't changed tyres at the first stop. Heidfeld was consistent but backed off in the closing stages. Lewis finished 68s in front of the BMW or, if you like, he was better than a second a lap quicker than a quality combination over the course of the entire race. That's how good he was.

So who was better last Sunday, Hamilton or Nadal? Hard to say, but Rafa undoubtedly had the tougher competition!