Lewis alive and kicking after Covid
Lewis bounces back from Covid with third place then says he will sign new deal by Christmas
LEWIS Hamilton said he felt glad to be alive after finishing third in the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix and promised to wrap up his new Mercedes contract before Christmas.
The race itself, the last of this Covid-mangled season, was a waste of energy on a track as suited to Formula One motor racing as a Sainsbury’s car park.
But the seven-time world champion, who is seeking a new £ 40million- a- year deal, had reason enough to enjoy being out there given where he had been a week before — in bed with Covid watching stand-in George Russell hot-rodding his car.
The toll the illness had taken was clear by the way his team T-shirt hung off him. He looked as if he’d lost about a stone.
Speaking after Max Verstappen won comfortably for Red Bull, 16 seconds ahead of Mercedes’ Valtteri Botas, Hamilton said: ‘My body is not feeling great, but looking on the bright side, I made it through. I didn’t think any time last week that I’d be here. I’m just truly grateful for my health and to be alive, and looking forward to recovering, and then getting into training again to get my body back to where it should be.
‘ It was a really hard race f or me. All year physically I ’ ve been fine, but today I wasn’t. So I’m just glad it’s over. The illness hit me massively. I don’t think I’ve ever been so blown.’
Now to his contract saga, which has dragged on for months. There seems only one conclusion — a deal, and not a bad one for Hamilton, even if his demands are slightly trimmed. ‘I’d like it done before Christmas ,’ he said.
‘I plan to be here next year. I ought to be here next year. We as a team have more to do together, more to achieve in the sport and outside, too. I hope we can begin talks this week.’
His boss Toto Wolff said: ‘It is going to happen. We need to sit down, maybe virtually, maybe in real life.’ As for the race, Wolff said he was sent more sleep emojis than ever before.
‘The infrastructure here is spectacular like no other,’ he said of the Yas Island setting. ‘But it is just so difficult to overtake, even if the car in front is slower. Maybe there are some track configurations we could look at which would make it more interesting.’ The ‘ highlight’ was Sergio Perez’s Racing Point packing up ten laps into the 55. The Mexican parked up outside the W Hotel, with its blue-lit shell roof that stretches across the track, and the safety car was deployed.
Most availed themselves of a ‘free’ pit stop, including Hamilton, leaving a long stint on hard rubber ahead of them. The interruption did nothing to change the podium places.
Retirement was a shame for Perez, winner a week ago in Bahrain, for this was his last outing for his Silverstone-based team, about to be rechristened Aston Martin. He deserves a seat somewhere on the grid and his trudge back to the paddock may have been his final Formula One act.
Verstappen, who started on pole, again opened up a decent lead en route to his second win of a gutsy campaign.
McLaren wrapped up third place in the constructors’ championship, their best result since 2012. It came on the day American investment firm MSP Capital headed a consortium that took a minority £185m stake in the Woking-based team. Their shareholding will rise from an initial 15 per cent to 33pc by the end of 2022.
It’s a real boost after Covid caused McLaren Group’s revenues, particularly road car sales, to fall substantially.