SILVERSTONE, U.K -- There is no doubt about who is the crowd favourite at the British Grand Prix these days, but Lewis Hamilton was still answering questions about the extent of his 'Britishness' after qualifying on Saturday afternoon.
Hamilton is comfortably Britain's most successful F1 driver and has enjoyed a supreme run of success at his home race in previous years, winning five of the last six races at Silverstone. The five-time world champion is a resident in the tax haven of Monaco, something he has been criticised for by U.K. media in the past.
Despite the fact he is closing in on Michael Schumacher's all-time record of wins and world championships, some suggested in the lead-up to this week that his popularity at home has failed to match the 'Mansell Mania' of the early 1990s around Nigel Mansell.