A glum Lewis Hamilton has admitted he does not know if he will be back on the pace in the championship battle after being thrashed by Nico Rosberg at the Singapore Grand Prix.
Advertisement
He is now eight points behind teammate Nico Rosberg.
The safety auto came out nearly immediately in the race due to a spectacular accident in the middle of the pack just after the start.
Rosberg led from start to finish, although he was compromised at the end of an early safety auto period when a marshal failed to clear the circuit as racing resumed on the main straight.
Triple world champion Lewis Hamilton could do little at the Singapore Grand Prix on Sunday to prevent Mercedes teammate Nico Rosberg from leapfrogging him in the Formula One standings but the Briton will not give up his title without a fight.
The Mercedes-AMG driver fended off an intense late-race rally from Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo, who went on a burner after taking fresh tires and finished second, just 0.4s behind. I had a great start and a great auto.
“We came back this year and beat them on their strongest track”.
“Today, great start. I had a good auto in the race”.
Yet Rosberg, despite turning in one of the most crushing displays of his recent rivalry with Hamilton, was quick to downplay his chances of securing a maiden championship.
“Our statistical tool told us we had seven seconds and within two or three laps he was going two or three seconds faster and then suddenly the algorithm said no gap anymore”.
The start was bad luck for Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, who was relegated from fourth on the grid to eighth as he took evasive action as Hulkenberg spun past his front wing.
“Come on, guys! I needed a strategy that would get me past”, complained Hamilton on team radio, unimpressed that his first stop saw him take on the slowest compound soft tyres.
“Nico has performed fantastically well this weekend, he’s done an awesome job, and I expect him to continue like that, so I’ve just got to make sure that I do the same”.
“Spa wasn’t a real good opportunity for him because of the engine penalty and here it just started on the wrong foot”, said Wolff. “Once my signal of brake overheating reduced, I was able to start to pick up the pace”.
As he was hunted by the honey badger in the closing laps, the paddock was waiting for Rosberg to lock a wheel, to run wide or to be blown off track by another mysterious gust of wind as he was at last year’s United States GP.
Advertisement
The 31-year-old German – despite Red Bull attempting an aggressive three-stop strategy that led to a fascinating crescendo – sealed his inaugural win at Singapore and his first podium finish here since 2008.
