He didn't crush him. Hamilton did defeat him mostly in one to one battles, but Nico proved to be the better qualifier. And Hamilton didn't just blast past Nico, he had to often force Nico into a mistake.WDC... only Hamilton car problems provided some excitement, but on track there was no battle at all, Lewis crushed Nico on every GP they both had their cars ok
And no battles? You must be joking. Forgot Hungary? Spain? Monaco? Japan? And yes I'm intentionally ignoring the most obvious one, simply because I don't have to refrain to it. There always was suspense.
Last year, Vettel was better then Webber in both qualy and race. That's what I call crushing the opponent.
I also fully disagree that both drivers need to be former world champions to make a legendary season. Just look at Ferrari, 3 championships combined in their drivers yet we hardly have seen any signs of legendary stuff there this year. Nico is a very good driver, if he gets his act together on par wih Hamilton. Efforts on the track is what counts, not what your title is.
May I also add that 1989, I think a season you consider as legendary, mclaren had very nearly double the points the second constructor had, 141 to 77. Competition between teams isn't absolutely needed; you need competition between drivers, whether they drive in the same car or not. We had competition between Rosberg and Hamilton. Perhaps a bit aided by more bad luck on Hamilton's side, yes, but to be honest I don't mind since Rosberg was close enough and did have his fair share of the bad luck too.