I don't think it could be seen as his best.
He's clearly Number 1 at Mercedes with Bottas there and Ferrari's title challenge spectacularly fell apart at circuits they should have won at. That said, he joins Vettel on 4 each which seems about right at the moment.
Ferrari and Vettel dropped the ball when Lewis and Mercedes were perfect. I think Vettel's mistake at Singapore was utterly bonkers but telling of a driver who was feeling the pressure of those around him. Just couldn't see Hamilton making similar errors.
He's driven better than he did in 2008, 2014 and 2015 in my view. 2015 was a breeze to be fair and was more or less faultless although in retrospect the extent of Mercedes advantage and Rosberg's under performance makes it hard to gauge. Heck - 2008 was as scrappy a title affair as I've seen and 2014 was more uncomfortable than it should have been at times.
And Rosberg, as excellent a driver he was, just isn't on Vettel's level either. But this is the first title he's had to fight for since 2008 that hasn't been inter team and so there's another element that was different and arguably more competitive seeing as it was coming from Vettel and Ferrari, emphasised further by the fact that he was trailing Vettel for a good chunk of the year.
I don't think driver status within the teams comes in to it. Vettel was as clear a number 1 as Lewis was at Mercedes and I think if they tried upsetting those dynamics (even though Lewis DID hand a place back to Bottas in Hungary) would have been foolish.
« Last Edit: Oct 29, 2017 09:34:55 pm by Frankly, Mr Shankly »
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