SUZUKA // If, when this 2015 Formula One season is done and dusted, you want to find a defining moment that perfectly sums up the narrative of this year’s title race, you would need look no further than the opening seconds of Sunday’s Japanese Grand Prix.
The Mercedes-GP drivers went wheel-to-wheel through the opening turns at Suzuka, but once again it was Lewis Hamilton who came out on top at the expense of teammate Nico Rosberg.
It was the same old story. This was a race that Rosberg had to prevail in if he was to signal serious ambitions of hunting down Hamilton in the title race.
He had been given hope by Hamilton’s non-finish in Singapore the previous week, in which he had gained 12 points on the world champion, and went into yesterday’s race 41 points adrift.
But instead of closing in, the gap between the pair at the top of the championship standings has now grown to 48 with five races remaining, and it was again Hamilton jubilant on the top step of the podium as Rosberg stood to his right, yet again doing his best to put a brave face on a crushing setback.
Rosberg had edged Hamilton in qualifying to take pole, only the second time he had done that this season, but it was the Briton who got the better start and was level with his German rival as they charged towards the sweeping right-hander that is Turn 1.
Hamilton had the inside line, but Rosberg, aware of the importance of track position, tried to go around the outside as they braked again for Turn 2, another right-hander.
Hamilton had the racing line, and he held it, pushing Rosberg wider and wider, until the German ran out of room, and was given a stark choice: back off or make contact with his teammate’s car.
Rosberg chose the former, but running off the track and on the kerbs on the exit of Turn 2 lost him momentum and he fell behind Sebastian Vettel’s Ferrari and Valtteri Bottas’s Williams to fourth place.
It was ruthless, but fair, by Hamilton: he had won the corner and was fully entitled to keep to his line, and that is what he did.
Of the move, the Briton said: “I didn’t really feel it was particularly that close, but the inside line is the inside line, so I had my corner.
“I imagine Nico was running out of road, but that’s what happens when you are on the outside.”
With that the fight for victory was over. The Mercedes, back on form after their struggles in Singapore, were the class of the field.
Hamilton, the double world champion, in clean air, pulled clear and was never threatened, while Rosberg did a fine job to claw his way back to second by Lap 30 of the 53-lap race, overtaking Bottas on Lap 17 at the chicane at Turn 17, before leapfrogging Vettel for track position during the final round of pit stops.
But by then it was too late. Hamilton was long gone and another winning chance had slipped away for Rosberg. He acknowledged it was a sizeable setback.
“It’s going the wrong way, definitely,” he said. “I had to win today, that was important, but it didn’t work out. I just need to win next time out.”
It was a good drive from Rosberg to fight back to second but, unfortunately, when things mattered most, it was Hamilton who did the better job, and that in many ways is the story of not just this season, but also of the 2014 championship when they also fought for the title.
In the tight moments it has been Rosberg who has blinked first. The 30-year-old German is not going to be a world champion anytime soon, not with Hamilton in the same car anyhow.
A bonus for Hamilton was the win, his 41st, which tied with him Ayrton Senna, the triple world champion, on F1 career victories.
Hamilton had grown up revering Senna, and the Brazilian was renown for his aggressive driving and willingness to go for any gap. He would likely have approved of Hamilton’s driving in the opening exchanges.
The result increases the probability that he will also replicate Senna again before the season’s end by claiming his third world title, and he will fully deserve it, when it happens.
FOLLOW US ON TWITTER @NatSportUAE
