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Lewis Hamilton has been an F1 driver for more than 15 years now and in terms of records, he's broken far too many. He's also driven quite a few cars that were arguably the class of the field and hence those seven world championships in his kitty shine as bright as ever.
Having said that, Lewis Hamilton's career is not one built only on driving the fastest cars to the title. His career has had many moments where he's been the underdog going into a race with not many giving him much of a chance.
He has, however, ended up winning those races and these are the ones that define his career more than anything. In this piece, we'll take a look at the top 5 drives from Lewis Hamilton where he started the race as an underdog but ended up winning.
Lewis Hamilton's top underdog performances
#5 2013 F1 Hungarian GP
There were many detractors of Lewis Hamilton's move to Mercedes in 2013 and all of them were proved wrong quite early as McLaren suffered a surprise decline. Having said that, while the German team was certainly growing and had tasted success with Nico Rosberg's wins, Hamilton hadn't accomplished that.
On the contrary, the car was considered to be great over a single lap but struggled in the long runs. This was precisely why Lewis Hamilton's pole position in Hungary did not turn many heads as the driver was expected to fall back in the race.
Well, that didn't happen as Hamilton made sure he pulled off the Jenson Button overtake in time while Sebastian Vettel couldn't and that made sure he won the race.
#4 2014 F1 British GP
The 2014 F1 season was an interesting case where the only contenders for race wins and the title were the two Mercedes drivers, and they were very close to each other in terms of performance. More often than not, the driver who held the advantage in the grid position would be the contender that would win.
The race in Silverstone was quite different in that respect. Lewis Hamilton started the race in P6 while Nico Rosberg was on pole. It did appear that Rosberg would hold the edge, just like he had in Austria a few races earlier. But his teammate made his move through the field quickly and was hunting down Rosberg quite early into the race.
Although the gearbox issue led to an anti-climactic end to the contest, this was one of the races where Hamilton crawled back from a huge championship deficit against his teammate.
#3 2021 F1 Bahrain GP
The race in Bahrain in 2021 was arguably an indication of why Mercedes and Lewis Hamilton had dominated the sport for close to a decade. It's not only because the car was just very good and the power unit was the class of the field, it was more than that. It was the fact that the team was arguably one of the best in terms of in-race strategies.
The race in Bahrain was a prime example where Max Verstappen arguably had the faster car but in the end, it was Hamilton who prevailed with the help of masterful tire management and stunning race strategy. It was this race that set the tone for the rest of the season.
#2 2018 F1 German GP
This was arguably the race that broke Sebastian Vettel's title campaign in 2018. The race saw Lewis Hamilton make his way through the field and then challenge for the win. What was truly impressive was that the Brit started the race so far back that there was no way he was expected to be a factor in the race.
After the first round of pitstops, he was right there in the mix, and in a way, Hamilton was the one who induced the error from Vettel and got the win.
#1 2020 F1 Turkish GP
This was a race where Lewis Hamilton shut down everyone who thought that he was only winning because he had the fastest car on the grid. The race in Turkey was a prime example of a driver who was so far ahead of the field in terms of race craft that he made a difference in the car.
In a race where his teammate was left spinning multiple times on his own accord, Hamilton slowly but steadily made his way through the field, adapted to the tires under him and won comfortably.
