Hamilton showed every sign of possessing the special skills that set apart the greatest wet-weather exponents — men like Jackie Stewart, Ayrton Senna and Michael Schumacher.

Renault's director of engineering, Pat Symonds, has first-hand experience of working with Senna and Schumacher. "What marks these guys out from mere mortals is an almost instinctive feel for grip level," Symonds said. "While others fly off the road around them, they seem to be able to adjust to the prevailing conditions almost immediately."

Hopes spun off
That was more than Hamilton's team-mate Fernando Alonso was able to do on Sunday, the twice world champion spinning into the barrier on lap 42 to end his race. Now 12 points behind Hamilton in the drivers' championship, the Spaniard's title hopes may have spun off with him.

Symonds was an engineer for Senna at Toleman in 1984, the great Brazilian's debut season, and then guided Schumacher at Benetton in 1994 and 1995, when the German won back-to-back world titles before leaving for Ferrari.

He witnessed Senna's superb performance at Monte Carlo when he would have won in his debut season in streaming rain had the clerk of the course Jacky Ickx — himself a great driver in rain — not stopped the race early and awarded half points just as Senna caught Alain Prost's leading McLaren. Symonds also saw Schumacher, on dry tyres, outbrake Damon Hill, on wets, at a soaking Spa-Francorchamps in 1995.

"You get quite a clue when you look at lap times when it suddenly rains," said Symonds. "Whereas most drivers gradually reduce their times to the point where they are at the limit of the circuit, the Sennas and the Schumachers tend to get to that limit much quicker."

Hamilton seemed to bear this out when he said after the race: "In the last few laps, the team was telling me that I was going a second faster than anyone and to slow down, and I was saying that I was going as slowly as I felt comfortable with."

Much of racing in the wet is about rhythm. In GP2, the feeder series to F1, Hamilton drove for the ART team run by Nicolas Todt, the son of the Ferrari team principal Jean. Todt Sr said: "He did some incredible races in the wet in GP2, so he has the skill and the talent and, as well, the luck, which is something you need sometimes. But you can only respect the way he has been driving this year."

Hamilton's McLaren team principal, Ron Dennis, was also impressed. "Lewis was very disciplined and drove a tremendous race," he said.

A characteristic common to Senna, Schumacher and Stewart was a dedication bordering on the obsessive. Senna said that in his early karting days he had identified his wet-weather driving as a weakness and so every opportunity that presented itself he took his kart out in the rain and pounded round until his wet-weather driving became a strength.

It was that kind of dedication that led to the rest of the field being beaten before they started in wet races that Senna drove. It led to that display at Monte Carlo in 1984, to his debut win at Estoril the following year and to countless other brilliant wet drives, the European Grand Prix at Donington in 1993 principal among them.
Schumacher was much the same and loved driving for driving's sake. While a multiple world champion at Ferrari he would still spend hour after hour of leisure time on a kart. If Hamilton's win in Japan confounded much of the F1 paddock, it will have looked familiar to the band of top 15-year-old karters who regularly had to follow a 12-year-old first-year novice home in the rain.

The Guardian

WONDERS IN THE WET


*Jackie Stewart (three world titles): German Grand Prix, Nürburgring 1968: Stewart, in his fourth season of Formula One, had a healthy respect for the old 'Ring and admits to taking a backward glance at his home when he left, wondering if it might be the last time he saw it. But, in 1968, driving Ken Tyrrell's Matra with a plaster cast on his wrist, he won the German GP by more than four minutes.

*Ayrton Senna (three world titles): European Grand Prix, Donington 1993: The great Brazilian three-time world champion won his first Grand Prix at Estoril in 1985 when he obliterated the opposition in a wet race in Portugal. His victory at DoningnJackie Stewart (three world titles): German Grand Prix, Nürburgring 1968: Stewart, in his fourth season of Formula One, had a healthy respect for the old 'Ring and admits to taking a backward glance at his home when he left, wondering if it might be the last time he saw it. But, in 1968, driving Ken Tyrrell's Matra with a plaster cast on his wrist, he won the German GP by more than four minutes.

*Ayrton Senna (three world titles): European Grand Prix, Donington 1993: The great Brazilian three-time world champion won his first Grand Prix at Estoril in 1985 when he obliterated the opposition in a wet race in Portugal. His victory at Donington in 1993 is even better known but, claim some buffs, was not as impressive because he had the benefit of traction control. It looked impressive to Alain Prost, who finished second.

*Michael Schumacher (seven world titles): Spanish Grand Prix, Barcelona 1996: It was Schumacher's first season at Ferrari, with Jean Todt having signed the reigning double champion from Benetton. Things did not start well with the drivers uncomplimentary about Ferrari's F310. "Kick it and it barks," Eddie Irvine had said. It did not stop Schumacher driving away from everyone, sometimes by as much as four seconds a lap when the heavens opened.