But Mercedes boss insists Rosberg still firmly in title race
Tuesday 2 August 2016 06:38, UK
Lewis Hamilton is "unbeatable" when at his best, according to his Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff.
The world champion has surged into the lead of the 2016 title race by matching the best winning run of his career with six victories from the last seven races.
Hamilton's win in Sunday's German GP, the 49th of his career, means he has taken a 19-point advantage over Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg into F1's summer break, having fallen 43 points adrift after the season's opening four races.
And Wolff, Mercedes' team boss, has declared: "On a good day I think that he's unbeatable.
"But then it's still a mechanical sport and he's a human and you can have bad days and worse days and this is why he is not winning every single race."
Amid a series of poor starts, collisions and reliability problems, Hamilton had to wait six races before registering his first success of his title defence, at Monaco in May.
Hamilton denies title advantage
Four of Rosberg's five wins came in a purple patch at the start of 2016 and Wolff added: "I really admire the way it's going, the ping-pong between those two, and the way they keep coming back."
When F1 returns from its four-week recess at the Belgian GP on August 28, the challenge for Rosberg will be to end the momentum which has seen Hamilton put himself on course for a third straight championship.
Although acknowledging the difficulty in beating an on-form Hamilton, Wolff replied with "a big yes" when asked if Rosberg can fight back in the title race.
"We have seen him start the season extremely well and he had an end of the season in 2015 that was very good," the Mercedes boss added. "There are still nine races to go - it's more than 200 points to collect."
Don't miss the F1 Report: German GP review and half-term report on Wednesday at 8.30pm on Sky F1 with Natalie Pinkham, Marc Priestley and Mike Gascoyne
