Brundle believes Hamilton is now “slightly on the back foot” in the fight for the 2016 world championship after losing the lead of the drivers’ standings to Rosberg in the Singapore GP. Ricciardo had eleven laps with which to do away with Rosberg’s 22 second lead, and he set about reducing the gap by around three seconds a lap. In response to working alongside Carey, Ecclestone said: “The only thing I have to do is die and pay my tax”. “Last year’s guy was drunk at least”, said Mercedes boss Toto Wolff.
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The trend of Rosberg’s dominance extends to the last three races and raises questions about Hamilton flying in and out of race venues after a parade of parties in America that he shares with his social media followers. “There’s a giant lizard on the track!” shouted Red Bull’s Max Verstappen as he sped past.
The FIA, the sport’s governing body, are seeking answers after a marshall was on track moments before the race re-started following an early safety vehicle period.
According to ABC, F1’s governing body, FIA, will conduct a report to elucidate the situation, with a spokesperson saying: “We take this very seriously…”
“But he got out of the way just about in time so it was okay”. It’s a good result for the team and it puts us back in fourth place in the championship.
Daniel Ricciardo will be hoping for more rain in the coming races, in order to catch up with the Mercedes drivers. By the end, the Australian was less than half a second off the pace of the leader. Red Bull’s Ricciardo ranked third with 179 points.
He said: “The pendulum is swinging back towards Nico, I think his confidence is so much higher, he’s driving to another level to what he has in the past and I think he’s a very strong challenger to Lewis”.
Nico Hülkenberg said, “It’s extremely disappointing to end my race in the barrier after just 50 metres, especially because I had made such a good start – probably my best getaway off the line this year”.
“We’ll get a downpour somewhere and that’ll hopefully throw a few curve balls and we can middle it and get the victory we’re after”.
It was a rather disappointing day for Ferrari.
He started third on the grid and was unable to get anywhere near Rosberg once he failed to get past Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo at the first turn and ended up fighting with Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen for the final podium spot. The team didn’t do themselves any favours with Vettel’s anti-roll bar failure in qualifying that saw him qualify and start last (22nd) and Raikkonen’s botch tyre strategy in the race.
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Lastly, though the Drivers’ Championship battle is heating up, the Constructors’ Championship could well be decided in the upcoming Malaysian Grand Prix.
