Silverstone triggered Hamilton title win - Hakkinen

Two-time Formula One world champion Mika Hakkinen believes that Lewis Hamilton's fourth title victory in 2017 was inspired by his dominant win on home turf at Silverstone, and has praised the Englishman and Mercedes for always striving for more victories in the sport.

This past campaign saw Hamilton of Mercedes and Sebastian Vettel of Ferrari battle for the driver's and constructor's championships respectively, and it would be the former which emerge victorious, with the Silver Arrows earning their fourth title in a row and Hamilton claiming his fourth also.

Vettel led the rankings for a good period of the season, but after the summer break Hamilton kicked on for the overall victory. Hakkinen thinks that the British Grand Prix was the turning point.

“Some people think the turning point in Lewis’ season came after the summer break, when he won three Grand Prix races in a row at Spa, Monza and Singapore,” Hakkinen told Unibet.

Forr me his dominant win at home in Silverstone was the trigger."

“Behind him the Mercedes team had been working very hard to understand this year’s car, and the best way to get the most from the new regulations.

“Mercedes worked hard to get the most of their ‘diva’, and this is where the team work became so important.

“You could even see the level of team work at Mercedes between their drivers.

“In Hungary, Valtteri handed his race position over to Lewis, and when Lewis was not able to do anything about Kimi Raikkonen’s Ferrari in second place, he handed it back to Valtteri again.

“That showed great maturity and professionalism from the drivers and the team management.”

Hakkinen won the world championship in 1998 and 1999 only to retire two years later, and he believes it is vital that Hamilton sustains his desire to keep on winning.

“Lewis’ achievement in winning four World Championship titles is impressive, and you can see that he has kept the hunger alive,” he continued.

“That is critical. When I won both my World Championships in 1998 and 1999 I went into 2000 absolutely determined to win a third title, but it was not to be.

“After that year, when I felt my energy levels drop a little, it was not long before I retired. Some drivers are happy with one title, others need to keep going.

“Michael Schumacher was able to push himself year after year, but there are not many who can sustain that level of motivation.”