Villeneuve: Hamilton may now be unbeatable after title swing

Jacques Villeneuve believes that Lewis Hamilton may now be unbeatable after his dramatic German Grand Prix victory and dramatic resumption of the drivers' championship lead. Hamilton recovered from 14th after a hydraulic failure in qualifying whilst Sebastian Vettel crashed out of the lead.

Speaking to Autosport, the 1997 world champion said that the circumstances that surrounded his win at Hockenheim could push Hamilton to find the next level as the fight for the championship keeps evolving weekend to weekend.

"The effect could be similar to Singapore last year," he said.

"Lewis completely down, depressed, (thinks) everybody hates him and so on. That was his attitude, even before the race. His comments were completely down.

"And he's given this, 25 points. This is what happened in Singapore, if I remember well.

"And from Singapore he was unbeatable. He had this mindset for three or four races that no one could beat him.

"Maybe that's what we will get now. It was costly (for Vettel). And it may push Lewis into a very positive state of mind."

Villeneuve sympathised with Vettel after he crashed out of the lead in tricky conditions in front of his home fans.

"It's a very easy mistake to make - you just never know how much water there is.

"You are the leader. When you are P2 or P3, you see the leader, you see the other guys. Kimi had slowed down.

"It's easy from the outside to say, 'what a stupid mistake'. (But) it's so easy to make in those kinds of conditions."

The championship looks to be going down to the wire this season but it could be either title contender who takes victory going into the summer break and stealing that all-important momentum before the summer shutdown.