Murray Walker has described
Lewis Hamilton's mesmerising performance to triumph in the British Grand Prix at
Silverstone as one of the finest wet-weather drives in
Formula 1 history – but he admitted that it is BMW-Sauber's
Robert Kubica who has been his star of the season so far.
Hamilton triumphed by more than a minute in front of his adoring home supporters just under a fortnight ago – the greatest winning margin since
Damon Hill prevailed by two full laps at Adelaide back in 1995 – and in so doing vaulted himself right back into championship contention. It was, Walker contends, a drive of pure genius – even if he does acknowledge that he subscribes to the widely-held theory that the young Briton is going through the ‘difficult second year syndrome' in the top flight in 2008.
“It's going to go down as a race that we'll be talking about in 20 years' time,” the veteran commentator – affectionately nicknamed ‘Trousers on Fire' for his excitable nature behind the mic' – told
Crash.net Radio at last weekend's Goodwood Festival of Speed.
“I can remember Gilles Villeneuve at Watkins Glen in the
Ferrari – an absolutely unbelievable drive, when he was making mincemeat out of everybody else in appalling conditions;
Stirling Moss at the Nürburgring in '61;
Michael Schumacher in '96 in the Ferrari in Spain; and Lewis Hamilton at Silverstone in 2008 has to go into that bracket. It was a quite phenomenal drive.
“Last year [Hamilton] didn't have any pressure, if you look at it logically – he'd got nothing to lose, it was his first year and everything was going for him. This year he's got colossal pressure. If you cross the media in this country you're in real trouble, and he's made some pretty inoffensive remarks which have been picked up and inflated beyond recognition. Yeah, he's having a hard time.
