FEATURE
L
ewis Hamilton will take the Formula
One title race down to the wire,
insisted Mercedes boss Toto Wolff
after the Briton was floored by a rampant
Nico Rosberg in Japan.
Rosberg has opened a 33-point lead
over his British foe with just four races left
and will take some stopping in this form.
But while Hamilton’s hopes of retaining
his crown were left hanging by a thread,
Wolff predicted a backlash from the triple
world champion.
“It’s not over,” said the Austrian, who
barely had time to savour a third successive
constructors’ title for Mercedes in Japan.
“Lewis is going to come back strong, he
needs the enemy sometimes. That’s how he
functions.”
Rosberg dominated all weekend at
Suzuka as Hamilton appeared to lose the
plot, even hinting that sabotage may have
been to blame for the engine blaze that
cruelly robbed him of a certain victory in
Malaysia a week earlier, much to the dismay
of his Mercedes team.
Hamilton’s behaviour grew increasingly
bizarre in Japan, where he battled back to
take third after a horror start saw him fall
back to eighth.
He snubbed media after being widely
criticised for fiddling with his mobile
phone and uploading bunny-ear photos
to Snapchat during an official FIA press
conference.
British tabloids duly let rip at Hamilton,
one labelling him “Snap-Prat” and another
“Berk in the Merc” – slang terms for “fool”.