Family feud cast aside as Hamilton gains F1 lead | Thebigtip

Lewis Hamilton shows maturity on and off the track - by Kevin Garside from telegraph.co.uk

If this is what a family at war looks like, put me down for a tour of duty. It was like old times at clan McLaren, father and son back in the arms of each other as junior took a measured stride in the direction of a second Formula One drivers' championship. No need for the bomb disposal crew at Silverstone. Not in this garage anyway.

Lewis Hamilton has diffused the paternal incendiary device that was his father Anthony when the pair split in March. Hamilton's management of the British Grand Prix mirrored the handling of the separation with his father; an authoritative demonstration of his maturity. He has experienced the mental equivalent of a teenage growth spurt that has had obvious consequences for his career. He is 25 after all, an age by which time life has shaken the adolescence out of most of us.

Hamilton's graduation has taken place before the television cameras. Nothing much gets past them. The trick is not to challenge what the eye can so obviously see. Hamilton has learned to accept the intrusion and appears more ready than ever to accept the challenge of life in the public eye. There was no attempt to massage a situation of obvious nuisance potential at Silverstone. Dad was out among us yet back in his box. That's genius.

Personal circumstances aside, Hamilton was on paper nowhere near the centre of attention here. The relative inferiority of his motor made sure of that. Yet at the end of a race in which the raging Red Bulls of Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel continued along their ruinous path, Hamilton emerged with his championship enhanced.

It took courage to reintroduce Anthony at the British Grand Prix. His return to the Formula One milieu was always going to be a news item. At Silverstone the scrutiny came fitted with an amplifier. It could not have happened without consent. And that consent was the son's to give.

On the track Hamilton was forced to abandon the aerodynamic upgrades that were intended to blow the McLarens to the podium's top step. The British Grand Prix coincides with the midpoint of the season, a developmental solstice when the design effort splits between 2010 requirements and the need to crack on with next year's model. McLaren were hoping to take chunks out of Red Bull's advantage through the quick corners, where Adrian Newey's ingenious blown diffuser gives the Red Bulls the greater traction, whipping them across the asphalt half a second a lap faster than the McLarens.

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