Haha I actually commented during the race that the sponsors of every team save McLaren and Mercedes could hardly be happy with the situation.
Lewis wanted to be a combination of 2 things. Firstly he came to F1 genuinely believing he was the best there had ever been, humble enough to wait, but expected to beat Michaels records. He has been taught that it is not that simple and raw talent itself does not make a champion. This has been a hard lesson and it has frustrated him but I think he is beginning to accept this...very slowly. He is exciting but so was Eddie Irvine once and how many WDC did he win? Lewis was young and confident now he is wiser and learning. Second, I think he wanted to be the David Beckham of F1, a fashion guru, trend setter etc. I walked into a super market in Siberia once (2005) (I really did) and the first thing I saw was a life size cardboard cut out of Beckham...now that is marketing. I think Lewis aspires or may be aspired to this level of success and has realised having a reputation with the stewards is not conducive to this market influence. He is trying adjust himself to achieve these goals and is losing himself in the process, but he is young and will emerge from it. He is in the meantime worried that Vettel will become the force he aspired to be and while he will be successful himself not be seen as the best of his generation. He can still be but he needs shorter term goals, worry less about the bigger picture till he gets his mojo back. If he gets the WDC next year he will relax, till then he needs to chill. So, I think he will be as good as Vettel, but will that satisfy him...I doubt...he wants to be better.
I don't think he is a hot topic so much because of today. Not in a negative way anyway? I loved the battle between him and Schumi where I think they both deserve applauds. They all have bad starts every now and then, that's nothing. But things don't go away over night, he is still a hot topic because of last race and because of Canada and even still Monaco and the "being black" comments to name a few. Would he have 10 race weekends like this in a row, I am pretty sure he wouldn't be making any headlines. Well at least not because of his driving.
It's funny. A few races ago we were saying Vettel isn't anywhere near as good as Hamilton, now we're all saying he's far better than Hamilton.
I think they are about equally talented and i thought so for several years. Vettel is just having the better car but he also started driving smarter and handled interviews better lately.
