Hamilton called his last race ‘one of his worst’

A dejected Lewis Hamilton called his performance in the Canadian Grand Prix one of the worst of his career.

That was probably a harsh verdict on his efforts in a race where he finished three places higher than he started and might have made his bols early switch to slicks pay off had he not encountered a slow Zhou Guanyu. Hamilton’s qualifying effort was subpar, however, and losing a podium finish to his teammate with two laps to go was always going to leave a bitter taste.

Does a performance like that really deserve to be considered one of the low points of his career? After 341 grand prix starts, even having won a record-setting 103 of them and stood on the podium almost 200 times, there must be the occasional duff drive on the list.

There have been a few race-ruining slips along the way – such as crashing into Kimi Raikkonen in the pits at Montreal in 2008, colliding with his team mate at the start at Spain in 2016, or the fluffed restart in Baku three years ago.

But rare have been the occasions where his performance seemed consistently below par. Here are 10 times Hamilton looked off his game in a grand prix, prior to this season.

2008 Bahrain Grand Prix

Bahrain International Circuit
Started 3rd, finished 13th

Hamilton’s second season in F1 began strongly with victory in Australia, but his pursuit of the championship which had narrowly eluded him as a rookie suffered a setback at round three. A strange collision with Fernando Alonso broke his Hamilton’s front wing and sent him into the pits early.

From there he struggled to recover, spending the race stuck behind Giancarlo Fisichella’s Force India, though he was able to pass Kazuki Nakajima, who was starting his fourth race for Williams. Hamilton finished a lap down after title rival Felipe Massa came past him with 10 laps to go en route to victory.

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2009 British Grand Prix

Silverstone
Started 18th, finished 16th

Hamilton won his second British Grand Prix in stunning fashion, taking the chequered flag a minute before anyone else after the heavens opened. The following year, lumbered with McLaren’s uncompetitive MP4-24, he didn’t figure.

He was eliminated in Q1, slowest of the six Mercedes-powered cars and only quicker than Sebastien Buemi’s Toro Rosso. From 19th on the grid he never rose higher than 14th in the race, two places higher than he finished.

But better times were not far away. McLaren introduced a floor update…