There’s more to a fighter than straight line performance…the lightning wasn’t a turner.
My dad (flew for the RAF in Hunters, Lightnings, Phantoms) said that of all three, the Lightnings was both the best and worst A2A, it had huge amounts of surplus energy that didn’t need to be particularly “managed” so you could force people to fight on your terms, or get out of a fight relatively unscathed. but if you let things get low and slow, or were tempted to fight on other peoples terms, you were pretty much a sitting duck, or just no hope in that environment. The airplane he always hated fighting against was the Buccaneer, he maintains to this day that they defy the normal rules of physics that apply to everyone else.
Edit, d’oh forgot, The Lightning didn’t have the tightest of turns, but it also didn’t slip, and had enough energy on tap to just push it around, so as a opponent you’ve either got to turn inside it, and hope that you keep up, and within range and missile envelope. Otherwise the Lightning just **** off into the distance.