Formula One News » Hamilton insists title not two-horse race – yet Posted on 30/08/2010
Belgian Grand Prix winner Lewis Hamilton is refusing to rule anyone out of contention for the 2010 F1 world championship title, despite three of the five aspirants failing to score at Spa-Francorchamps.
With only Hamilton and Red Bull’s Mark Webber making the top ten, the Briton was asked whether he considered the title race to be between himself and Webber, but replied that the season so far had shown just how much affect one result could have on the standings.
While he and Webber swapped places between qualifying and the chequered flag, neither McLaren team-mate Jenson Button or Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso made it to the end – both the victims of accidents in tricky conditions – while Sebastian Vettel, in the second Red Bull entry, finished a lowly 15th after an error-strewn afternoon. As a result of taking his third win of the year, Hamilton retook the championship lead, by three points over Webber, while third-placed Vettel dropped 31 points behind.
“You’ve seen in the last few races how quickly things can change, so we will still have a long way to go, there are still many points to be grabbed by any of us drivers who are fighting for the championship,” the Briton insisted, “Clearly, for me, my closest rival in the championship is Mark, in terms of points, but I still think the championship is open, although obviously we want to make sure that that’s not the case after another few races.”
Having got the better of poleman Webber off the line, Hamilton made certain no-one else got a look-in for victory, even though he made a mistake in the closing stages when rain caught him out at Rivage.
“It was a great weekend, but a very, very tough race for me,” he conceded, “I know it was the same for everyone, but we were just praying for a race that went smoothly.
“However, with the tricky conditions when it started to rain, losing temperature in the tyres and not really knowing how much you can push in each corner, I braked quite late [at Rivage], locked my wheel and went wide at turn eight. Jeez, the Lord definitely had his hand over me there as I was able to get away with it and stayed ahead of the guys here.”
The McLaren was still on slicks at that point, Hamilton having been told to delay his pit-stop until intermediates were absolutely the way to go.
“It is a difficult call,” the driver admitted, “The team are telling you there is rain coming but, on the previous occasions, it was just a light shower and dried up very quickly, so you didn’t know what to expect. There were very dark clouds above, and it began to rain quite heavily, so you are praying that you could come in, but it is too late once you get past the pit-lane.
“Fortunately, I got round and changed the tyres and had a fantastic pit-stop, the best one I have had this year, and I guess that’s what helped us.”
Having been caught out by the rain, Hamilton actually wanted the precipitation to continue for longer, but still faced a four-lap race to the flag with the field right on his heels.
“I was hoping the safety car would stay out longer but, unfortunately, it did not rain anymore and the track got a little bit better,” he revealed, “At the end, it was just about nursing the car home and bringing it back in one piece. I was just trying to keep a small gap between myself and Mark and bag those points. It is not many times you are in this position.”
The victory was all the sweeter as it came two years on from losing the 2008 grand prix in contentious circumstances, having battled Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen in similar conditions.
“I am so happy – and so grateful to be in this position,” he admitted, “When you have a weekend, and a race, like that, as Mark said, it can be a lottery, so to come out on top, even though you are faced with so many difficult situations, I was very, very blessed.
“I think you can probably see by my reaction just how happy I am. I love racing, and I missed it so much in the break. The whole team works for that win, and we came here to find that we were very competitive, if not a little bit faster than the others, but to then try and put that into a win in these changeable conditions was very tough.
“It is one of those I can tick off now and say that I have won – and I get to keep this one, which is great.”
Follow us on twitter
Follow us on facebook
Subscribe to rss news feed