Edited by Simone Canini
Falling with style, opening your wings and gliding gently to the ground, towards a reality that has become uncomfortable. Lewis Hamilton He has often used that pair of wings: to run away from the contenders on the track, to set lap records, but above all to soar towards the Olympus of the Greats, fitting in perfectly between Senna and Schumacher.
This time, however, infinite talent was not enough, defeat knocked at his door wearing the face of a young Dutchman hungry for victory. Max Verstappen etched his name on the board of the best, graduating for the first time in his career as world champion of Formula 1.
A lightning success, at times impossible considering the course of the race, which was dominated from dawn until the first light of dusk by a simply perfect Hamilton, with world number eight just one lap away. Then the overtaking move, followed by the solemn waving of the chequered flag. Second place. Defeat.
They struck the world, those interminable minutes spent by Hamilton inside his now immobile Mercedes number 44, with the visor of his helmet lowered to protect him not from the debris on the track, but from the splinters of a reality that, a few metres further on, was celebrating the new champion. Who knows what thoughts may have pervaded the 38-year-old Briton's mind as he exited the single-seater. Who knows, he might have signed a pact with destiny: that this time too, despite the sporting defeat, he would emerge the moral victor, head held high.
Then the seven-time world champion stepped out of the cockpit, gliding over defeat and his demons, displaying the serenity of one who is aware that he has dedicated his whole self to the goal. He caught up with his rival, congratulating him on his success, only to be picked up by his father's arms, in an embrace that tells of how it is never too late for tenderness.
And so, with a seemingly simple but not at all obvious gesture of accepting defeat, Lewis Hamilton turned the tale of this world championship into legend.
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