After qualifying at Silverstone Lewis Hamilton would not have expected the situation he now finds himself in.
After a Q3 blunder had seen him fail to set a time on a drying track, he literally handed pole position to team-mate Nico Rosberg who had only been able to set a faster time as Hamilton had opted to pull over.
Not only was the advantage given to Rosberg but Hamilton had to start down in sixth place.
With Hamilton and Mercedes dominance all weekend at the British Grand Prix, the 2008 Formula One World Champion probably thought coming in behind Rosberg for another one-two finish was the best he could hope for.
That result would have left Rosberg on 190 points, with Hamilton trailing on 154 points and a gap of 36 points would have been taken into this weekend in Germany.
But instead, approaching the half way point of the season the gap is just 4 points with Rosberg on 165 points and Hamilton 161.
The dramatic turn of events followed a gear box failure for race leader Nico Rosberg in Britain, the Germans first retirement of the season.
With a 7 point difference between a race win and finishing second, Hamilton could lead the championship for only the second time this season with a win at Hockenheim.
?I feel like I’ve been on the back foot all year, only briefly leading the Championship despite taking the wins I’ve had, so to have got myself just about level was exactly what I needed.
?It’s almost a fresh start heading into the second half of the season and it’s going to be a really close battle between us. Of course, you never want to see your team-mate fall away, but hopefully we can now strike a line under the retirements and push each other all the way on track.? Hamilton told Sky Sports.
Despite Mercedes dominance this season, the Silver Arrows have been far from bullet proof as Rosberg has once demanded from his team.
Retirements for Lewis Hamilton in Australia and Canada was what had put the Brit on the backfoot to begin with, whilst Rosberg’s 1 DNF has blown the championship wide open again.
Mercedes Executive Director (Technical) Paddy Lowe has stated that the team hope to have got the bottom of the gearbox fault and said: ?As with any such scenario, a lot of work has been put into rectifying the issue and we head to Hockenheim with a remedy in place. We will also be bringing a number of other upgrades evaluated during the Silverstone test last week, so we look forward to the next race in the hopes of both improved performance and a more robust package from a reliability perspective.’
F1 title chase starts now
