Which of the four times WDC is going to reach 5 WDC first?

[Nitrodaze]

The last two races typify the change in fortune that transpire when the momentum of the development battle between the main title contesting teams swings from one to another. As a matter of fact, you could go back even further to Singapore. In the first half of the year, Ferrari had the upper hand. Mercedes were clearly frustrated that their cars were struggling to keep up with the black prancing horse. Unfortunately, Ferrari did not make hay when the sun was shining.

After the summer break, Mercedes found a solution to the problem that was stifling their potential. They knew the potential of their car was on par with the Ferrari but it was not as efficient as the Ferrari on some tracks. When they applied the ingenious solution to their tyre rims, they found they had not only released the true potential of the car, the car turned out to be faster than the Ferrari.

All the damage limitations and fortuitous opportunities that Hamilton was able to exploit during the first half of the season , finally started to pay dividend as he began to extract the full potential of the new found speed of the Mercedes. Hamilton started to gather momentum from the German GP. Singapore which is suppose to be a bad track for Mercedes was the eye opener as he sustained championship momentum with a brilliant performance. And that mersmerizing Q3 lap that took pole at Monza underlined the fact that Mercedes were back on form and it became all too clear that Vettel had a hill to climb.

I could see that Mercedes' new found speed rocked Ferrari with surprise. They were scrambling since, to find an answer to the Mercedes, and have failed on all fronts so far.

The main revelation of this 2018 season was the confirmation that Vettel is brittle and impatient under pressure. He threw away precious opportunities as what seemed like red mist moments became a feature of his races. It was very clear that he was frustrated with everything, the car, the pitwall etc.

That said Ferrari are also now paying dearly on the constructors championship front by not getting the most out of Raikonen. Kimi should be winning when Vettel is unable to win. Unfortunately, the Raikonnen side of the Ferrari garage seem to be grossly incompetent. Their strategy calls were the worst in the entire grid. So kimi was always displaced from the best positions where he could have extracted more from races where opportunities were available if he were properly located.

This was a season where Hamilton has shown to all his typical critics what a truely awesome driver he is. His mettle when things were not quite in his favour and his characteristic predetorial driving has faired really well for him in this historic title fight. It was not quite a Prost Vs Senna type battle on track, but you cannot quite blame Hamilton for that, Vettel simply did not sustain a flawless and meticulous title fight.