THE WORLD BELONGS TO LEWIS
Brit on brink of fourth title as he races 59 points ahead of Vettel
BY THE time Lewis Hamilton knelt at the side of his Silver Arrow, tapped it gratefully for all its tight-knit perfection, Sebastian Vettel was on the fast train to Tokyo.
For Hamilton, this warm afternoon in Suzuka was one of the most thrilling of a remarkable career: victory in the Japanese Grand Prix gave him a 59-point lead to become the world champion-elect. A fourth title, taking him beyond Sir Jackie Stewart in the British pantheon, is his to collect almost at will.
Hamilton kept his helmet on for longer than usual after the race and turned to the wall as he took a flannel to his face.
Was he obscuring the emotions of knowing the magnitude of what he had almost achieved?
Champagne-sprayed, Hamilton then performed the Mobot to acknowledge the presence in the crowd of his guest Sir Mo Farah.
Poor Vettel only saw the cruelty of sport, as his Ferrari team went down the sink like overcooked spaghetti, a spark plug problem the latest of several ruinous technical gremlins prompting the instruction: ‘Box, Sebastian, box. We’re going to retire the car.’
With those words on lap four, a black pall fell over Ferrari. And the air went out of the title fight. Now Hamilton needs 16 more points than Vettel in Austin on Sunday week to take the crown four races from the end. He may not do it there, but if not he will do so in Mexico, Brazil or Abu Dhabi.
For some time, Vettel refused to concede his dream was dying, sitting in the cockpit of the car that had been tended to on the grid and just been pushed backwards into the garage. He implored his men to do whatever they could to get him back out there.
But there was nothing they could accomplish with all the spanners under the sun.
A few minutes later, Vettel was changed into jeans and red top to shake hands with his crestfallen team. He smiled, but it was the smile of a brave mourner at the funeral of a family member, a mask that hid his feelings.
He was then whisked off by car to Shiroko station on a get-methe-hell-out-of-here journey.
Over on the pit wall, Maurizio Arrivabene, the Ferrari team principal, swivelled on his stool with a doomed expression. No saddle in world motor racing is so precarious as the one sat upon by the boss holding the reins of the Prancing Horse.
After this embarrassment, following the engine failures at Malaysia a week earlier, it may well be a case of arrivederci for Arrivabene. His fate depends on the generosity of spirit extended by Ferrari president Sergio Marchionne, whose recent remarks indicate a certain impatience.
The greatest source of frustration within Ferrari, having not won any title since 2008, is that they got so close.
Their car has been wonderfully quick all year, but they have imploded. Vettel has tumbled from seven points ahead going into Monza four races ago, to 59 behind. He has collected 12 of the last 75 on offer.
That is what pressure does to you. Niki Lauda’s views on Ferrari are worth hearing because he won and nearly died in the scarlet car.
He has said ‘Italians are all about spaghetti and romance’, his point being that without the practical sense of the English or Teutonic — as was the case in excelsis in the Michael Schumacher-Ross Brawn era — they are wont to lack the necessary discipline.
All the while Hamilton drove further into the pages of grand prix folklore, with his third win on this great track and fourth in Japan, when his early majesty in the wet at Fuji in 2007 is added in.
He started on pole after another sensational lap on Saturday and led, albeit under pressure
from Max Verstappen’s Red Bull, virtually throughout the race.
There was one specific moment that needed Mercedes’ attention, when Hamilton found himself returning from the garage behind his team-mate Valtteri Bottas, who had not pitted, and with Verstappen big in his mirrors.
Bottas gave way and then briefly delayed Verstappen. But the Dutchman soon got past and was persistently fast, to finish a strong second, ahead of the other Red Bull of Daniel Ricciardo. Hamilton’s victory was his eighth of the season and 61st of his career.
Hamilton’s voice quivered as he contemplated how close he is now to joining Alain Prost on four world titles. ‘It’s kind of unbelievable really to think we are where we are,’ said Hamilton, before flying out of Japan on Lauda’s private jet.
Before that there was a Mercedes team debrief. Last week’s version in Malaysia had been long and painful, as driver and boffins thought through remedies for a dramatic loss of pace.
That work having paid off, this week’s discussion was short and sweet, and Hamilton walked out wearing the look of a man preparing for the embrace of history. It was just about then that Vettel was showing the guard his train tickets.