That's his key now, his consistency.
Like Vettel, I don't think Hamilton is quite as at home now as he was with the relatively small and light V8s, and doesn't have quite the same explosive pace he once had, however, largely unlike Vettel, Hamilton has found a consistency which goes a long way to more than make up for it when it counts. He's not too different to how Alonso was throughout his career - fast enough, but mostly relentless and supremely consistent.
I'm not convinced, his 1 lap pace in qualifying is still amazing. I suspect its because he's much more wise now to playing the championship game.
Look Max and Lewis against Perez at the weekend. One span as he was impatient and the other was more patient and methodical and got the job done. Think Verstappen will have to learn this before he wins a title.