Formula One: Is there any stopping Lewis Hamilton this season?
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Sunday’s Hungarian Grand Prix won’t live long in the memory, but despite the lack of on-track action, we saw the latest indicator that Lewis Hamilton is building an unstoppable mission towards a fourth world title.
The Mercedes man’s fifth victory around the Hungaroring was also his fifth in the last six races, and Hamilton now leads the world championship for the first time this season.
Having once sat 43 points behind team-mate Nico Rosberg, Lewis now holds a six point lead, and is very much the man with all the momentum.
Since colliding with his team-mate on the opening lap in Spain, Hamilton has been near enough untouchable, with only an error-strewn qualifying in Azerbaijan allowing Rosberg to claim his only victory in the last three months.
Hamilton’s form is reflected in the odds, with the three-time champ now odds-on favourite at 2/7 to claim this season’s title, having been 7/4 back in May.
The pendulum has well and truly swung away from Rosberg, who has seen his 4/6 odds slip all the way out to 11/4.
The only concern for Hamilton is one which is outside of his control.
Having suffered a number of mechanical issues earlier this season in his power unit, it seems inevitable that the 31-year-old will be forced to take a grid penalty at one of the remaining races.
As and when that arrives, it seems set to hand Rosberg at least one likely victory.
But with that in the back of his mind, perhaps that’s only serving to spur Hamilton on even more, knowing that penalty awaits him in the coming races.
Hamilton has used the first-lap smash in Spain as the turning point in his season, and as he has consistently showed lately, when he is in form, nobody can catch him.
He seemed almost down and out earlier this season, but with just ten races to go, it seems increasingly likely that the Stevenage man is now rapidly homing in on another Drivers’ Championship title.
All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing.
