Wolff: Hamilton’s 7th F1 title win puts him among sporting greats

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff says Lewis Hamilton’s seventh F1 drivers’ triumph has "cemented his position" among the greatest sportsmen in the world.

Hamilton recovered from sixth on the grid in qualifying to claim his 94th career victory at the Turkish Grand Prix, which in turn secured the 2020 drivers’ title.

It was another vintage Hamilton performance in the wet as superb tyre management and pace in the second half allowed him to claim his 10th win of the season.

Reflecting on Hamilton’s latest title victory, Wolff said it confirms the British driver’s place among the sporting greats.

“Where does it rank? He ranked in terms of his record on Michael’s level in terms of drivers’ world championships and he’s the absolute record holder in pole positions and race victories,” Wolff said. “He cemented his position among the all-time best sportsmen in the world.”

Once again, Hamilton’s ability to manage the tyres came to the fore with a long stint on the intermediates key to his second career victory at Istanbul Park.

Wolff credited this aspect of his driving and his ability not to make mistakes for his win in Turkey.

“The tyres went through phases,” Wolff added. “You could see that most of the people who bolted on a new set of intermediate and pushed very hard had graining after a couple of laps only and from then on the tyre didn’t recover.

“Lance [Stroll] was leading the race and put on the new tyre, which I think at that time was the right strategy and just dropped back and the same with Max. I think the difference made was that Lewis kept it on the road through the difficult phase at the beginning where our car was not competitive - he just stayed there and eeked out the advantage over our competitors when it mattered and understood the tyre, understood how to drive the tyre to go fast and to make it last.”