F1 motorsport director Ross Brawn says that anyone who believes that Lewis Hamilton owes his dominance in F1 to his equipment should watch his "masterpiece" performance in last years' Turkish GP.
Hamilton secured his seventh world crown by winning at Istanbul Park, but the race was anything but an easy Sunday driver for the Mercedes superstar.
After inclement weather and low grip had left him sixth in qualifying, Hamilton made little headway in the opening laps with a drizzle continuing to hinder his efforts.
But once the track started to dry up, the Briton came into his own, overhauling his rivals and taking the lead 20 laps from the checkered flag.
"Lewis drove a brilliant race," he told RaceFans. "If anyone questions that ‘he’s got the best car, he ought to win’, they ought to watch that race because that was a masterpiece.
"We had some very negative comments about the grip levels and the conditions. And we had one of the greatest races of the year.
"I think everybody took something away from that. It was interesting to me to see the more experienced drivers come to the fore there."
With grip at a premium around the newly resurfaced Turkish track, laps times were considerably slower than expected. But the lower performance did not weigh on the racing as Brawn noted.
"That’s another thing that we’ve sort of taken into consideration, that it doesn’t necessarily follow that producing the fastest lap time is going to produce the best race," Brawn added.
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