RacingNews365 readers have spoken, and the verdict is emphatic: Lewis Hamilton is the man most likely to deny Kimi Antonelli a maiden world championship.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
In our latest poll asking who represents Antonelli’s biggest threat to the 2026 title, a commanding 63.6 per cent of voters selected Hamilton, dwarfing second-placed George Russell on 13.4 per cent. Lando Norris collected 10.5 per cent of the vote, with Max Verstappen on 10.0 per cent, while Charles Leclerc (0.8%) and ‘someone else’ (1.7%) barely registered.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
It is easy to see why fans have backed Hamilton. The seven-time champion has been a model of consistency this season, scoring points in all nine grands prix without a single retirement.\u00a0\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
His five podiums and victory in Barcelona have propelled him to third in the standings on 169 points, 50 behind Antonelli heading into the summer break. Ferrari’s SF-26 has closed the gap to Mercedes in recent rounds, and at 41, Hamilton appears rejuvenated after a difficult 2025 campaign.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Russell, sitting second on 160 points with two wins and four poles, will feel he deserves a larger share of the vote. Yet his costly retirement in Canada and pointless afternoon in Monaco have undermined his challenge, allowing Hamilton to emerge as the more relentless pursuer.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Defending champion Norris, fifth on 128 points, has been hampered by multiple non-scores but did win in Hungary, while Verstappen, winless and sixth on 109 points in a struggling Red Bull, looks too far adrift. Leclerc, fourth on 138 points, has the machinery but trails his own teammate.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
The numbers tell the story. If anyone can reel in Antonelli’s lead over the second half of the season, fans believe it is Hamilton.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"RacingNews365 readers have spoken, and the verdict is emphatic: Lewis Hamilton is the man most likely to deny…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":844980,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[64,63,827,830,828,831,829,826,813,823,825,806,805,824,803,804,822,85],"class_list":["post-844979","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-motosport","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-daniel-ricciardo","tag-f1-calendar","tag-f1-live","tag-f1-results","tag-f1-standings","tag-ferrari","tag-formula-1","tag-lewis-hamilton","tag-max-verstappen","tag-motor","tag-motor-sports","tag-motorsport","tag-motosport","tag-motosports","tag-racing","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/844979","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=844979"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/844979\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/844980"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=844979"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=844979"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=844979"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}