Saturday, July 05, 2008

Is pressure getting to Lewis Hamilton?

While watching the qualifying session for the Formula 1 British Grand Prix, I found myself asking the above question. This happened specifically when he slid off during his first hot lap in Q3, and again when I saw the in-car footage during his next lap. He was driving beyond his limit, and making constant corrections on the wheel to keep the car on the tarmac.

His pit crew had tried to calm him after the minor excursion earlier over the team radio, telling him that he was the fastest over the 1st few sectors (before he slid off), and told him not to overdrive.

Roll back to this BBC article I read earlier, together with the unfortunate pit lane incident, one begins to wonder if a pattern is developing. The parallel example of James Toseland is staring right at me at this point.

The scene at the weighing counter after qualifying seemed to confirm my worries. While the other drivers were congratulating each other, Lewis was sitting at the corner, and did not even offer a handshake to his team-mate, who had just taken pole with a blinding lap (half a second faster than the next driver, and at the very end of qualifying).

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