LEWIS ON THE BRINK
Win puts him close to landing sixth title
LEWIS HAMILTON, victorious on a dramatic day, came as close to winning his sixth world championship title as anyone’s nerves could stand without actually doing so.
But, after all the see-sawing and imponderables of strategy which played out agonisingly slowly in mexico City, the Briton’s quest goes on to austin, texas, next week.
Hamilton is reaching the inevitable conclusion salami slice by salami slice. He won yesterday’s race by husbanding his threadbare tyres for 48 long laps around autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, but title-wise he needed his mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas to come fifth or lower.
the Finn disobliged him by finishing third, a place behind Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel.
now Hamilton needs only to finish eighth in america, where he has won in five of the past seven years, to be certain of moving ahead of fellow quintuple champion Juan manuel Fangio and behind only michael Schumacher — with seven titles — in the alltime achievers’ list.
Hamilton stood on his car in the stadium area, the Foro Sol, to soak up the applause at the end. It was not the full celebration he wanted but a joy nonetheless.
‘Great job,’ he said over the radio. ‘thanks for all your help. that was a tough race.’
the top five drivers had swapped places again and again, making amateur archimedes of us all.
Was Charles leclerc, who started on pole for Ferrari, in too early after 15 laps of the 71? Could he make his tyres last?
no, as it turned out. It was another horrible mess by the Scuderia. they should have won this, yet leclerc finished fourth. their failure to perform has made this season a numbingly predictable bore. Shame on them.
Similarly, was Hamilton reshod earlier than was prudent, on lap 24? no, as we saw when he finished 1.7 seconds in front. the Brit was not always so sure the team’s plan was ultra cunning, as he made clear in curt exchanges with his pit wall.
‘It feels like we stopped way too early,’ he bemoaned. He had to be comforted by chief strategist James Vowles, not a voice regularly heard on radio, his interventions marking some moment of import.
‘lewis, this is James,’ came the reassurance. ‘You can do this.’
Vowles’s involvement was especially needed because Hamilton’s usual race engineer Peter Bonnington — to whom the race winner dedicated his triumph — was back in Britain for a medical procedure. one pitied Bonnington’s stand-in, marcus Dudley, as
Hamilton’s exasperation rose. the champion finally took the lead on lap 44, his doubts subsiding, after Bottas and Vettel had peeled in for their delayed stops and leclerc for his second.
But at this point Bottas was not where the championship maths said he needed to be — 14 points or more adrift of Hamilton. It was a weekend of fluctuations. When Hamilton qualified fourth, his title chances looked slim. But, on the other hand, there was the possibility that Bottas might start at the bottom of the field. He crashed in qualifying and would possibly require changes of parts that carried with them grid penalties.
no, 24 legal components of his car were replaced from nose pins to seat belts in a seven-hour rebuilding job only completed half an hour before the pit lane opened yesterday. Bottas started where he qualified — sixth.
there was also the max Verstappen factor. the Red Bull man grabbed pole but had it ripped off him because he did not stop for the yellow flags waved because of Bottas’s accident. Verstappen was demoted three places, moving Hamilton up one. now there was an extra glimmer for our man, lewis.
How, we wondered, would
Hamilton behave off the start? He did not need to take chances. Why involve himself in an elbow fight with the brilliant but rash Max?
As it happened they did entwine in the opening corners. Hamilton escaped unharmed. Verstappen then tangled with Bottas, landed a puncture and tumbled down the field before fighting his way back to finish sixth.
The excitement continued to the end with Hamilton told he had full power available to blast for the fastest lap. He tried everything, turning the screens green and purple — depicting personal and overall fastest times respectively — in certain sectors but could not pull it off over the full circuit. His rubber was too old for that.
What else? Hamilton’s fellow Brit Lando Norris has suffered at the hands of his McLaren team intermittently all season and so it happened again. A problem fitting his tyres meant he had to stop in the pit lane. He was wheeled back but retired from the race.
The last word goes to Hamilton. ‘I have always wanted to win here,’ he said of his first Mexican triumph. ‘I don’t mind waiting. I love racing.’