Hamilton stays cool on road to title No 5
AMID the madness of Mexico City’s sprawl, Lewis Hamilton is in a noticeably contented mood. Unfailingly polite, thanking reporters for doing their jobs, answering every question thoughtfully, the Briton exhibits no hint of nerves as he closes in on a fifth world drivers’ title.
Hamilton can afford the unforced nonchalance because we know what happens in the last reel long before the credits are due to roll. Finish seventh or above in tomorrow’s Mexican Grand Prix and the championship is his. If Sebastian Vettel fails to win here, the same conclusion.
Inside the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, with its whistling policemen outside, Hamilton does not anticipate any skulduggery at the first corner. He is a clean driver — it is a mark of him as a champion — and he expects others to ‘Play up! Play up! And play the game!’
‘I don’t think anyone here wants to taint his own history, his own future, by doing something bad,’ said the reigning champion, for whom dirty tactics have always been foreign words. We will never see his name tainted alongside Ayrton Senna, Alain Prost and Michael Schumacher, wonderful drivers who blotted their reputations by acts of low cunning.
It is not a universally held view but it seemed that Vettel might deliberately have made contact with Hamilton here last year having damaged his own car in a coming together with Max Verstappen. Was it a move perpetrated in desperation, era ti on, out of a belief that takinging his Mercedes rival out offered a possible ble chance of keeping his is own fading title e hopes alive?
We cannot be sure. It made no difference anyway, because Hamilton went on to take the e title, his fourth, that at lifted him ahead of Sir Jackie Stewart as the most successful British racer ever.
Hamilton said: ‘Being targeted has never, in my entire career, come into my mind. There is great respect between all the drivers. I haven’t felt any negativity out there. Everyone is here to do a great job.’
His peers’ saintliness will be tested on the long 800-yard drag into the first corner with its potential for high-speed danger. But, other than for an unforeseen seenunforeseen calamity,cal Hamilton will waltz to the title on a tractrack where he has won ononce and Vettel has nenever even climbed a podium step. If not, it goes to Brazil and possibly Abu Dhabi. So strong is the lilikelihood of capturing incapturing title No 5 that HaHamilton — fifth in firsfirst practice yesterday to VeVettel’s seventh — is already looking towards further glories.glo ‘I waited a long time, six years, to get a second title and I could easily have stayed where I was, at McLaren, and I would be sitting here now with the one title,’ he said. ‘ Actually, I probably wouldn’t be sitting here at all, to be honest. ‘It has been an interesting journey with the decisions I have taken at the different crossroads I have encountered, but I am very grateful for the route I have travelled. I feel I’ve got a lot left to do, so I am just going to get on with it.’
As for any strain, Hamilton added: ‘This is not the first time I have ridden the rodeo. I know what I need to do to get into shape to deliver this championship.
‘I choose what I want to put my focus towards, and I don’t allow any negativity in, so I am just on a positive wave.
‘If I were here with one point between me and Seb, I am sure things would be a little bit different, and it would be intense.’
He acknowledged that if he were a kid in Stevenage again watching on TV, he would want the drama to be sustained into the final race. But he added: ‘I am not in that seat now. When you are in the fight and living it, you just want to get it done whenever.’