If Lewis Hamilton clinches a record eighth world title it would be in no small part due to Sunday’s against-all-odds win in Brazil, which he ranked as “the best weekend I have experienced in probably my whole career.”
On Friday night that looked a fanciful idea, when he was hit with disqualification from pole in Saturday’s sprint after the stewards had detected a minor infringement on his car.
Setting off 20th, he produced a vintage overtaking masterclass to take fifth, which dropped to 10th in the grand prix grid after a penalty for an engine change.
Photo: Reuters
With championship leader Max Verstappen on the front row alongside Hamilton’s teammate Valtteri Bottas on pole, a win looked improbable.
“Coming here 19 points behind, only one point ahead in the teams championship, we really needed a solid, solid result, but then obviously we had all these penalties,” he said.
“Mentally you can just think it’s over, it’s impossible, but then nothing is if you put your mind to it. That’s really why we just cultivated a positive mental attitude and went in fighting, guns blazing,” he added, after climbing the podium draped in a Brazilian flag, the Interlagos fans chanting his name.
Enjoying faster speed on the straights courtesy of his new engine, the 36-year-old picked off the cars in front of him one by one — only Bottas under orders to swap places proved light work for all the race-craft knowledge the seven-time world champion has accumulated.
Verstappen inevitably proved an altogether tougher assignment.
He maneuvered ahead of his archrival at turn four on lap 48, but Verstappen forced him wide to hold his position.
The stewards investigated and determined Verstappen had acted within the rules.
Another failed attempt followed before he succeeded on his third, at the start of lap 59.
While Hamilton played the diplomatic card when asked about Verstappen’s tactics, Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff was livid by that and all the obstacles thrown at his team in Brazil.
“I think we’ve just had many, many punches in the face this weekend with decisions that could have swung either side against us or for us,” he said.
“It’s just something that I’m just angry about, and I will defend my team, my drivers to what comes. I’ve been always very diplomatic in how I discuss things, but diplomacy has ended today,” he added.
He described the decision to disqualify over a broken part on a rear wing “we couldn’t look at, couldn’t analyze” as “very harsh.”
Especially when Red Bull repaired a wing three times in parc ferme “without consequence,” he said.
Verstappen escaping a five-second penalty when it was only Hamilton’s quick avoiding action that prevented yet another collision between the pair was “laughable,” he added.
He did temper his anger with sympathy for the stewards who he said “have a difficult life anyway and they are only there to lose.”
Mercedes head to the upcoming Qatar Grand Prix in a far better position than when they arrived in Sao Paulo.
Hamilton has reduced Verstappen’s lead from 21 points to 14, and Mercedes lead the constructors championship by 11.
TIGHT FINISH: Napoli only needed to do the same as or better than Inter, who won their game against Como 2-0 on the same day, leaving Napoli with a one-point lead The two players who Antonio Conte wanted more than any others secured Napoli their second Serie A title in three years on Friday. Scott McTominay scored with an acrobatic bicycle kick before halftime and Romelu Lukaku doubled the lead with a solo goal after the break in the decisive 2-0 home win over Cagliari. Conte became the first coach to win the Italian championship with three different teams. “Everyone contributed to this — but the coach most of all,” Napoli captain Giovanni Di Lorenzo said. “Napoli needed him to get back on top. He’s phenomenal.” Comparing it to his three Serie A titles won
The journey of Taiwan’s badminton mixed doubles duo Ye Hong-wei and Nicole Chan at the Malaysia Masters in Kuala Lumpur came to an end in the semi-finals yesterday after they suffered a 2-0 loss to China’s Feng Yanzhe and Huang Dongping. Ye, 25, and Chan, 20, teamed up last year and are currently ranked No. 23 in the world. The Taiwanese shuttlers took on China’s second seeds in the mixed doubles event, but proved no match for Feng and Huang, losing the match 10-21, 7-21. In the first half of the first game, the pairings were neck and neck at 6-7 until Ye
SSC Napoli coach Antonio Conte has dragged the team back from disaster and restored them to the top of Italian Serie A, but his future at the Scudetto winners is in doubt even after a triumphant season. The fiery 55-year-old has exceeded preseason expectations and bolstered his reputation as a serial winner by guiding Napoli to their fourth Scudetto, and second in three seasons. However, he might well be on his way in the summer after just one season at the helm as his charged relationship with Napoli owner Aurelio De Laurentiis has simmered throughout the campaign. Conte has said
Carlos Alcaraz on Monday powered into the French Open second round with a resounding win to start his title defense, while world No. 1 Jannik Sinner and three-time defending women’s champion Iga Swiatek also progressed at Roland Garros. Four-time Grand Slam champion Alcaraz struck 31 winners in a 6-3, 6-4, 6-2 victory over Italian qualifier Giulio Zeppieri and is to face Hungary’s Fabian Marozsan in round two. Alcaraz is now on an eight-match winning streak at the French Open and also took Olympic silver at Roland Garros last year, losing the final to Novak Djokovic. “The first round is never
RSS