Think back to the German Grand Prix of 1968. The 23km-long Nürburgring circuit — the ‘Green Hell’ — is soaking wet. Jackie Stewart in his blue Matra-Ford, sixth on the grid but two-thirds around the first lap already in the lead. Rain continues to fall throughout the race, creating treacherous conditions with none of the modern safety features such as run-off areas and wide open tarmac. At the end, after 14 laps, the young Scot receives the chequered flag more than four minutes ahead of former champion Graham Hill.

Or Monaco 1984. Ayrton Senna in only his fifth Formula 1 race and behind the wheel of the uncompetitive Toleman-Hart. Thirteenth on the grid, but in driving rain he quickly works his way up the order into second place on a track where overtaking is almost impossible in normal conditions before he begins to haul in the race leader, one Alain Prost in his McLaren-TAG. At the halfway mark, however, the stewards decide conditions are too dangerous and they stop the race, awarding half points to the top six finishers. To this day many believe the decision was wrong and that Ayrton could have taken his first F1 victory that day.

Portugal 1985. Estoril. Senna again, this time in a Lotus and once again conditions are very wet. Ayrton starts from pole and begins to stretch his lead over Prost until the Frenchman tries too hard and ends up against a wall. Senna scores his maiden F1 victory by more than a minute over Michele Alboreto in his Ferrari.

Donington Park, the European Grand Prix of 1993. Senna fourth on a very wet grid, which temporarily becomes fifth shortly after the green lights before he begins to pick off the leaders one by one to emerge in the lead at the end of lap one — arguably the greatest opening lap by a single driver ever. He pulls away from the field, but is caught and loses the lead temporarily as the track dries out. When it starts to rain again, he stays on slicks and regains the lead, beating Damon Hill by about 90 seconds to the flag — the only two drivers on the lead lap.

Or what about the Spanish Grand Prix at the Circuit de Catalunya in 1996? Michael Schumacher this time, in his first season with Ferrari. Very wet conditions cause chaos after the start and Michael drops from third to sixth into the first corner. Over the next few laps the leaders make mistakes and the German fights his way to the front, taking the lead from Jacques Villeneuve in the dominant Williams on lap 12. After that, he pulls away — his lead at one stage more than a minute, despite a sick engine — and he takes the flag 45 seconds clear of Jean Alesi in his Benetton. Schumacher’s first victory for Ferrari.

All these performances (and there are others) have three things in common: they were delivered in wet conditions, when a Formula 1 car is the most difficult to control; they are generally regarded as some of the top performances in F1, ever; and they featured the greatest of the great.

Sunday at Silverstone another such performance was added to the annals.

With his victory of almost 70 seconds in extremely challenging conditions, Lewis Hamilton made fools of the rest of the Formula 1 field in the British Grand Prix.

This included his team-mate who, with the same amount of F1 experience and in the same car, could not stay with him after the first five laps; Ferrari and Renault who, with the same data as every other team on pitlane, made gross tactical errors by not changing to new intermediate tyres at one-third distance; world champion Kimi Raikkonen who, on the same fuel load and tyres, lost up to five seconds a lap to Hamilton in the final third of the race; Felipe Massa who became a clown after spinning at least five times not to mention the rest of the field, with the exception of Nick Heidfeld and Rubens Barrichello, who looked totally at a loss and paid the price for it.

In fact only Heidfeld and Barrichello could also hold their heads high after the race. Quick Nick slowed down, stayed out of trouble and was rewarded with yet another second place finish, while Rubens showed his experience by calling for extreme wets in the middle part of the race and used them to great effect (team-mate Button was the only other driver to also choose monsoon tyres, but he spun out), sometimes going 10 seconds a lap quicker than anybody else. He could have finished second were it not for a refuelling problem.

The world saw something remarkable on Sunday: a driver with the feel, finesse and inner drive his competitors can only dream of, delivering a performance on par with some of the best ever that will be remembered for a long time.

This doesn’t mean Lewis Hamilton is unbeatable or without faults. It does, however, make him one of the greats.