Ruthless Hamilton roars to victory at Japan Grand Prix
LEWIS Hamilton romped to victory at the Japanese Grand Prix yesterday to close in on a fourth world title after Sebastian Vettel retired with engine failure on lap four.
The Briton dominated from pole, steering his Mercedes to a crushing eighth win of the year, to stretch his Formula One championship lead over Vettel to 59 points with just 100 left to play for.
“Honestly, I could only have dreamed of having this kind of gap,” said Hamilton after holding off a late charge from Max Verstappen in Suzuka.
“The team has done a phenomenal job, they’re just so meticulous, so a big thank you to the guys.”
The Red Bulls of Verstappen – who stunned Hamilton to win in Malaysia last week – and Daniel Ricciardo secured a double podium for the second successive race.
Valtteri Bottas finished fourt h in the second Mercedes with Kimi Raik konen’s Ferrari ta k ing fift h and Esteban Ocon si xth for Force India.
Hamilton celebrated a fourth victory in Japan and a 61st career win with a “Mobot” pose, a tribute to his friend Mo Farah, the Olympic champion athlete, who was watching trackside.
Fatal blow
“Max drove an outstanding race and it got very close at the end,” Hamilton said. “His car was looking so big in my mirrors. It wasn’t a walk in the park today. There’s still a long way to go.
“Anything can happen in life, so I have to keep my head down and hopefully continue to perform like t his.”
Vettel’s title hopes, meanwhile, suffered a potentially fatal blow with four races left following nightmare start from the front row.
Ferrari mechanics worked frantica lly on t he grid to fix a spark plug issue before lights out and Vettel was quick ly complaining of a lack of power.
The German, who finished fourth in Malaysia and crashed from pole in Singapore before t hat, plummeted to si xth on the first lap before being told to retire t he car as Hamilton roared away dista nce.
Ferrari, who have struggled with reliability issues since the summer break, later blamed the faulty spark plug for the car’s loss of speed.
“The misfortune of Ferrari is unbelievable,” Mercedes boss Toto Wolff said. “But Lewis drove a spectacular race.”
The omens did not look good for Vettel as Ferrari mechanics frantically worked to fix the spark plug issue before lights out. Vettel held into t he on to second place off the line but quickly complained of a loss of power as he tumbled back to sixth place on the first lap before retiring.
Vettel defiant
“It’s just a pity in the last two races with the reliability issues,” he said. “The car had no performance but it’s like that sometimes.
“Now I think we just have to get back, get some rest and go flat out for the last four races and see what happens.”
Vettel’s latest setback leaves his hopes for a fifth world title in tatters after the damaging results in Singapore and Malaysia.
“We are all on the limit,” he said. “It’s a real pity. Once we noticed the issue, we tried everything possible to reset but it just wouldn’t work.”
Hamilton, who has been in unstoppable form, winning four of the last five races, could mathematically clinch the title at the next round in Austin, Texas.
But Vettel attempted to strike a defiant tone.
“We still have a chance this year,” he insisted. “Obviously it’s not as much in our control as we like, but overall I think the team is in a good way,” added the former Red Bull driver.
“I think we are improving race by race, and we got a lot further than people thought, so for sure there are some positives – but today is not the day to look at positives.”
Hamilton, meanwhile, refused to get ahead of himself.
“Sebastian has been incredibly unfortunate,” said the Briton. “There’s still a long way to go. I’m still going to keep the pedal to the metal.”
The warmer conditions were supposed to favour the Ferraris but Hamilton ruthlessly converted his record-breaking pole position by rapidly taking a stranglehold on the 53-lap race.
Verstappen raised pulses over the final two laps but ultimately his charge was too little too late to prevent a fourth successive Suzuka win for Mercedes.
Also in the points, Sergio Perez finished seventh for Force India ahead of the two Haas cars of Kevin Magnussen and Romain Grosjean, with Felipe Massa holding off Fernando Alonso’s McLaren to take 10th for Williams.