Hamilton now three points clear at the top of the Drivers' Championship summit after Nico Rosberg forced to retire
Monday 22 September 2014 09:24, UK
Lewis Hamilton says he still feels like he is playing catch-up in the World Championship despite climbing to the summit with victory in Singapore.
After clinching his seventh win of the season at the Marina Bay Circuit in a grand prix that he effectively won twice after the mid-race deployment of the Safety Car, Hamilton now tops the standings by three points from Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg. But the Englishman, down and almost out just two races ago, is adamant that nothing has changed despite the sudden shift in fortunes.
"In my head, the best I thought l could do here was claiming seven points back and I’d have to keep chipping away at it. Instead, all of a sudden, it’s 25 points caught up,” a guarded Hamilton told Sky Sports F1. “I still feel like I am hunting, I still feel like I am chasing – and that’s a good feeling.
"This is game time. This is about hunting. In my head, I don’t think I am leading the championship. There are still five races left and all I’m going to do is what I’ve done in the last two races which is just attack every session.”
Although the infamous Singapore sling is no more, the Singapore swing was alive and kicking this weekend as Rosberg’s 22-point lead was suddenly wiped out after a broken wiring loom on his steering wheel forced the German to retire. Not that Hamilton is accepting that the bad luck, a regular companion for the Englishman in 2014, at Mercedes has finally started to even up.
“It’s 5-2 in terms of reliability and 3-2 in DNFs,” Hamilton was quick to point out. Nevertheless, relations appear to be thawing at Mercedes, with Hamilton offering Rosberg a consoling handshake upon his return to the team's motorhome.
Rosberg’s race day began to unravel even before it had started when his Mercedes suffered an electronics glitch on the installation lap. Then unable to start his W05 for the formation lap, Rosberg had to be wheeled off for the grid for a jump start in the pitlane. He struggled on until the first round of pit-stops before his Mercedes team finally put the German out of his prolonged misery after another lengthy stoppage.
“I only noticed when they [the rest of the field] caught me up at Turn One that Nico wasn’t behind and then I saw it on the screen that he was he was still on the grid,” revealed Hamilton. “The whole approach then changed because I was thinking ‘just get the car to the end, just utilise and look after my baby’”.
If only it was that straightforward. Having cruised through the first 30 laps, Hamilton’s serene progress was then rudely interrupted by the unwelcome appearance of the Safety Car which instantly wiped out his carefully-constructed ten-second lead.
If that wasn’t bad enough for Hamilton’s frayed nerves as he strived to capitalise on Rosberg’s misfortune, the Safety Car’s lengthy deployment meant the three cars directly behind him – of Sebastian Vettel, Daniel Ricciardo and Fernando Alonso – would be able to run to the finish without changing tyres. In contrast, Hamilton, having not yet put on the soft compound, was obliged to make at least one more stop.
The upshot was a stunning burst of 'Hammertime' when Hamilton was finally released after an interminable 15-minute go-slow delay and increasingly animated radio messages as the Mercedes team called on him to build up a 25-second lead while their nervous driver fretted about the declining state of his tyres.
“I didn’t realise the guys behind were struggling as well. My real concern was my tyres and these tyres blowing up. I was nervous of that and I was thinking ‘these tyres are dead’,” Hamilton admitted to Sky F1.
Speaking in the post-race press conference, Hamilton added: “I was a bit unaware of what I needed to do on my second-last stint. I had extended for it as long as I could and then they said I needed another six seconds and my tyres were dropping off. I was also nervous that if a Safety Car came out then that would cause me big problems. But fortunately we needed to get to where I needed to go.”
Or there or thereabouts at least. Despite Hamilton’s burst, and an ultra-quick pit-stop from his Mercedes crew, he still had plenty of work to do upon his return to the track as he was forced to fend off Daniel Ricciardo before catching and passing Sebastian Vettel to reclaim the lead of the race - and the lead of the World Championship as well.
“I saw Sebastian going past as I came back out but straight away I knew that they were doing a two-stop and I would have good pace,” said Hamilton.
“I took it easy on the first lap and then it was was a very tight gap so maybe I should have overtaken him somewhere else! But fortunately Sebastian was very fair and I got by. After that, it was straightforward.”
At long last.
