Hamilton’s closing in on title No4
Hamilton pulls off miracle win after his rivals take each other out at first corner
LEWIS HAMILTON took advantage of a first-corner pile-up to win the Singapore Grand Prix yesterday and move closer to a fourth Formula One world title. He increased his lead over title rival Sebastian Vettel from three to 28 points with six races left — the German was sent crashing out within seconds of the start following a spectacular crash involving the two Ferraris and the Red Bull of Max Verstappen. It was a huge stroke of luck for Hamilton, who had started the race fifth on the grid admitting he needed a miracle to stop pole-sitter Vettel regaining the world championship lead. Hamilton, 32, said: ‘I could have finished fifth and come out a lot worse. ‘But the conditions were fortunate, fell in our direction, and we capitalised on it. I was blessed by God today.’
IT was not quite divine intervention of Noahand-the-ark dimensions, but the rain that fell during the pre-race singing of the singaporean national anthem was the first sign of the miracle Lewis Hamilton had called for.
He stood, holding his umbrella, one step back from the rest of the drivers lined up on the strip of red carpet, and thought: ‘I needed it to rain, and as soon as it did I knew where I would finish.’
with the drops taking on the appearance of thick sleet under the glare of the light bulbs, luck — or providence — intervened in Hamilton’s favour again in the first four seconds of the opening lap, as the leaders flicked from third to fourth gear and roared towards 120mph.
sebastian Vettel, starting on pole for Ferrari, had been sluggish away. The Red Bull of Max Verstappen was on a charge, as was the Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen. Three into one would not go. Bang.
Vettel had moved slightly towards Verstappen, who was trapped in a red sandwich. The Dutchman clipped Raikkonen on his outside and they careered off, sparks flying in the night sky. Vettel was dinked in the melee but carried on for a corner or two until he spun his already damaged car and ended up trickling helplessly backwards.
and, suddenly, Hamilton was leading the singapore Grand Prix, up from fifth with an electric start, and he never once relinquished his advantage all night.
He did not quite turn water into wine, but a three-point lead over Vettel into a 28-point advantage. It may have been the day the world championship’s destiny was determined.
who was to blame for the crash? The stewards found nobody was ‘wholly or predominantly’ culpable, and that seemed fair. But if anyone was a touch more responsible than anyone else it seemed to be Vettel. Certainly, that was the majority view in the paddock, not least among exdrivers, whose instinctive feel for these kind of encounters are keen.
The stewards issued no punishment. That would have been harsh on Vettel because he had suffered enough. He had flunked his great chance on a track suited to his Ferrari to overturn Hamilton’s lead. Instead, the German spent most of the race in his private room in the Ferrari garage.
an interesting consideration is the Vettel-Verstappen relationship. It is as sour as lemon juice. They have sparred on and off track before, most famously when their joust at Mexico last year so enraged Vettel that he repeatedly swore at the race director, calling for the teenager to be punished for over-aggression.
so it was no surprise to see Verstappen reach for a wooden spoon yesterday. ‘If you are fighting for the world championship you shouldn’t take those risks,’ he said. ‘You should not squeeze someone that much. You can see what happened: Lewis is leading the race and the three of us are out. I don’t think it was a racing incident.’
One suspects Vettel may have been more circumspect if it had been someone else alongside him. Did a flash of retributive anger not cloud his judgment when all sense suggested he should have carried on in a straight line rather than risk ruination, in the wet, by turning very slightly towards Verstappen? If so, Vettel showed again the same impetuous streak that caused him to ram into Hamilton in the austrian race. For all his smiles — and he is a very nice chap — there may be a chink here, perhaps a slight immaturity.
Vettel had returned to his usual sanguine state a few minutes later, telling his interviewers that the night’s events had changed nothing.
Not true. Hamilton, backed by a near-flawless Mercedes team, is in command of the season 24 hours after Vettel drove a brilliant pole lap to set himself up perfectly for a record fifth win at Marina Bay.
Instead it had come to this: for the first time in 67 years, nearly 1,000 grands prix, involving 108 drivers including ascari, Fangio, Hawthorn, surtees, Lauda, andretti, Villeneuve, Prost, Mansell and schumacher, two Ferrari suffered the ignominy of taking each other out on an opening lap.
The debris of the crash, which also sent Fernando alonso’s McLaren jumping into the air and forced his subsequent retirement, was being cleared when Hamilton was told precisely what he had to do: get the car home in one piece. The championship leader responded to that sage advice by telling his engineer: ‘I realise that, Bonno. I’ll do my best.’
He absolutely did.
The rain soon stopped, but the track only dried slowly in the humid air. Hamilton made no mistakes over a race that ran to the two-hour time limit, three laps short of the scheduled 61, owing to three safety car phases in all.
Daniel Ricciardo finished second for Red Bull, joking that he was too slow away to have got caught up in the first-lap mayhem, with Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas completing a satisfying day for silver arrows with third place.
all that was left was the fireworks to light the sky at the end of the first ever wet night race.
Hamilton kissed the trophy and said a prayer.