Formula 1: The biggest deficit Lewis Hamilton has overcome
By Asher Fair
Lewis Hamilton now trails Max Verstappen by 32 points in the Formula 1 driver standings. Is this a deficit that he can overcome?
Max Verstappen extended his and Red Bull’s Formula 1 winning streak with a dominant effort in Sunday’s Austrian Grand Prix at the Red Bull Ring, the ninth of 23 races on the 2021 schedule.
Verstappen swept all three races of the recent tripleheader, doing so each time from the pole position. He first won the French Grand Prix at Circuit Paul Ricard before going on to lead every single lap in both the Styrian Grand Prix and the Austrian Grand Prix at the Red Bull Ring.
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Red Bull have now won five consecutive races, as Verstappen also won the Monaco Grand Prix at Circuit de Monaco before Sergio Perez won the Azerbaijan Grand Prix at Baku City Circuit after Verstappen crashed with a tire failure while leading late.
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Verstappen has led the driver standings after each of the last five races, and he has not lost ground to his chief championship rival, Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton, since the season’s fourth race, the Spanish Grand Prix at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.
Red Bull have led the constructor standings after each of the last five races as well, and they have not lost ground to Mercedes since the Spanish Grand Prix either.
Following his Austrian Grand Prix win, Verstappen leads Hamilton by 32 points (182 to 150) in the driver standings, guaranteeing that he will remain ahead following the British Grand Prix at Silverstone Circuit, Hamilton’s home race.
Hamilton has won the last four and six of the last seven world championships, having come up shy just once since the V6 turbo hybrid era began back in 2014 when he was beaten by teammate Nico Rosberg by just five points in the 2016 season.
But during the seven-time world champion’s six title runs with the Silver Arrows, he has managed to overcome deficits on multiple occasions. In fact, he trailed in the driver standings at some point en route to five of those six titles.
However, he has never managed to overcome a deficit of 32 points. His largest overcome points deficit is 29, as he trailed Rosberg by 29 points following both the Austrian Grand Prix and the Belgian Grand Prix during the 2014 season.
But this is not to say that he cannot pull it off. He trailed Rosberg by 43 points following the Russian Grand Prix and the Spanish Grand Prix during the 2016 season, and while he did not win the title that year, he did take the lead of the driver standings later on.
WynnBET lists Hamilton is the underdog at +350, while Verstappen is the favorite at +500.
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Will Hamilton begin to close the gap to Verstappen in his home race? The British Grand Prix is set to be broadcast live on ESPN from Silverstone Circuit beginning at 10:00 a.m. ET on Sunday, July 18.
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