Lewis Hamilton win 'diluted' by Wimbledon and Cricket World Cup

Lewis Hamilton

Hamilton win 'diluted' by Wimbledon and Cricket World Cup

An incredible Sunday of sport.

Martin Macdonald

Tuesday 16 July 2019 15:00

Lewis Hamilton’s record-breaking win at the British Grand Prix on Sunday was “diluted” by the equally-as-thrilling finales of Wimbledon and the Cricket World Cup, in the opinion of Sky Sports pundit Martin Brundle.

The Brit started the race second on the grid, but eventually got the better of team-mate Valtteri Bottas to take P1, before going on to claim the victory, with the fastest lap of the day no less. The win made him the outright most successful driver in the history of the British GP, as he has now won on six occasions compared to the five of Alain Prost and Jim Clark.

It may have been a historic day at Silverstone, but unfortunately for Hamilton and F1, viewers were spread thinner than usual due to two other massive events.

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At Wimbledon, Novak Djokovic defeated Roger Federer in five sets in what was the longest final in tournament history, while England won the Cricket World Cup for the first time in one of the most epic matches in history, one that went to a Super Over and was screened live on Channel 4 in the UK.

Brundle admits it is hard to spread the schedule of sporting events in the summer, but that the day ultimately took something away from Hamilton’s win.

“What a stellar event the British GP was, yet again,” he wrote in his Sky Sports column.

“The racing was great, the crowd as usual immense, the weather kind, and the venue delivered on all fronts. And the drivers raced brutally hard.

“It's a shame in a way Lewis Hamilton's record-breaking sixth British GP victory was diluted by the equally exciting tennis and cricket on the same afternoon, but there's only so many Sundays in a British sporting summer.

“It was Hamilton's 80th F1 victory, and suddenly Michael Schumacher's seemingly unassailable tally of 91 wins looks remarkably close. Inside the next calendar year close.”

Mercedes secured another one-two finish with Bottas finishing behind Hamilton, and Brundle thinks the qualifying session in particular displayed the Silver Arrows’ superiority over the other teams.

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“Lewis had his Silver Arrow feathers clipped in qualifying, by six thousandths of a second, in challenging conditions by his reconfirmed fast Finnish team-mate Valtteri Bottas,” he continued.

“ It was yet another Mercedes front row lockout despite the best efforts of Red Bull and Ferrari.

“If we study the progression between the opening Q1 stage of qualifying to the closing top 10 shootout of Q3, then Merc still has greater reserves of power when it matters most.”