F1 News: Predictions Reveal Lewis Hamilton Could Finish Second in Championship

There has been a pretty interesting debate on who would finish runner-up in this year's drivers' championship and surprisingly, Lewis Hamilton was one name that popped up. The British racing driver currently holds fourth place in the drivers' standings behind Sergio Perez and Fernando Alonso in second and third, respectively.

The debate brewed between former racing driver Damon Hill, Max Verstappen's former performance engineer Blake Hinsey, and Sky Sports F1 reporter Natalie Pinkham as they joined Matt Baker on the Sky F1 Podcast.

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Predicting that Hamilton will finish runner-up as "Aston Martin's decent run of form is over," Pinkham said:

"I'm going to say that Lewis Hamilton will finish runner-up because I fear Aston Martin's decent run of form is over.

"Whether it is to do with this flexi-wing being out-ruled or they have just gone down a bit of a cul-de-sac in terms of development and it's been exaggerated by the fact that others have done well, like McLaren."

I'm not sure if she missed Sergio Perez out entirely who, at 189 points is currently the runner-up in the drivers' standings and holds a pretty good margin of 41 points from Hamilton at 148 points. However, Hamilton may overtake Aston Martin Driver Fernando Alonso in third soon since the points difference between the two has narrowed down to just one.

1996 world champion Hill didn't miss Perez out though, hoping that he stays in form because Red Bull has never secured a 1-2 in the drivers' championship before. But this time, they could break the record. He said:

"I don't think Lewis can get Checo. I'd be amazed if he could overturn his performance. We don't want Checo to have another nightmare middle part of the season like he's had and I think he's turned a corner a bit.

"Red Bull have never had a 1-2 in the drivers' championship. It's leading up to them ticking all the boxes, breaking all the records and I kind of would like to see that happen because then it's a historic season and you were there to witness it - they are breaking all the records as they go and we are going into the unknown."

Verstappen's former performance engineer Hinsey expressed that there is a high certainty of Perez coming second considering the way he sprung back in form toward the end of last season. He said:

"I see Natalie's point as well but I think Perez will finish runner-up. He had this little slump in form last year after the summer break and then came back towards the end of the season and he was fighting.

"I don't remember that happening with him in the past. But I'm going to be boring and go for Perez. I think that's almost a certainty but not guaranteed."

So it's two votes for Perez against one for Lewis Hamilton. The next few races would decide if that order remains the same.

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