Victory in Sochi takes Hamilton 17 points clear in the standings; Lewis praises title rival Nico Rosberg for fightback drive to second place
Tuesday 14 October 2014 08:41, UK
Lewis Hamilton has vowed to stay on the attack despite extending his World Championship lead over Nico Rosberg with his fourth successive victory in Sunday’s inaugural Russian GP.
Hamilton – only the fourth driver in history to win nine grands prix in a single season – increased his championship advantage to 17 points with victory at Sochi. Few will have been as straightforward, or as solitary, as his Sunday cruise following Nico Rosberg’s race-wrecking lock-up into the second corner.
"I like to think l am still growing as a driver, moulding and improving in some areas,” Hamilton told Sky Sports News HQ. “I will improve for these final races and keep turning up the heat.
“Nico is very close, very fast and doing a great job. I’ll just keep my head down – there’s still three races to go, a long way to go. It’s encouraging to see the result for the team and the performance of the car.”
An on-form Hamilton dominated the Sochi event, setting the pace in two of the three practice sessions and then leading the way in each segment of qualifying. Victory of the race was never in doubt after Rosberg, possibly distracted by a seat-belt adjustment as he attempted to slipstream his Mercedes team-mate, flat-spotted his tyres into the second corner of the race to such ruinous effect that he had to take an emergency pit-stop.
“It was pretty straightforward, I was on the inside so it was my corner, but it wasn’t even close to working out,” a rueful Rosberg later conceded of his botched move. “It was just a mistake on my side. I just braked too late and that’s it. It was definitely do-able and I just messed up. It was very simple, no explanation. I just braked too late and too hard."
But even Hamilton, more a foe than a friend of his team-mate this season as the pair joust for the drivers’ title, was impressed with the damage-limitation operation that followed from Rosberg as the German skilfully scythed through the field from last at the end of the first lap to second at the chequered flag on tyres 52 laps old.
“When I found out he was behind me, I was like ‘are you serious? He just pitted and he would have lost a lot of time’. But he did an amazing job on those 50-odd laps on those tyres, a great job," an impressed Hamilton acknowledged.
Hamilton’s victory, which he dedicated to Jules Bianchi as the Marussia driver continues to fight for his life following his terrifying accident at Suzuka a week ago, was his 31st in F1 and saw him equal the British-record tally of Nigel Mansell.
“Lewis is not finished yet and he’s still a young guy, he could easily get to 60 victories,” declared Sky F1 pundit Damon Hill. “We haven’t seen Lewis’s peak yet and he will obviously surpass the number of victories Nigel had. Where the ceiling is, I have no idea.”
Yet despite his recent run of searing form, a second World Championship is still far from being in the bag for Hamilton. With Abu Dubai offering a double-points bonanza, there are still 100 to play for over the next month – a statistic which underlines the fragility of Hamilton’s seemingly-substantial title lead.
“The championship will either be decided by Lewis’s pace, double points or unreliability,” predicted Sky F1’s Martin Brundle. “They are the three things that are going to decide this now.”
