He was caught napping at the restart from an early safety car, he explained
through gritted teeth, his momentary hesitation allowing Schumacher to
overtake him for third spot. It proved a calamitous lapse in concentration.
It would be more than 20 laps before Hamilton was finally able to re-pass
the seven-time world champion — whose combination of canny defending and
dubious ‘weaving’ raised a few eyebrows, although not those of the stewards
— by which time the race leaders were well down the road.
To compound Hamilton’s frustration, Button profited from one of his
unsuccessful passes to nip ahead himself before pulling off “one of the best
moves” of his career to overtake Schumacher on the same lap. That sort of
decisive action is usual Hamilton’s forte.
As he was recalling all this in gloomy monotone, a spontaneous round of
applause broke out from downstairs, where Button had returned from his
podium celebrations, doused in champagne. Hamilton did not flinch.
It felt like a significant moment in the narrative of their rivalry and spices
things up nicely ahead of the return to the Far East and the start of a
six-race run-in.
Button now leads Hamilton by nine points in the standings, and while both
insist they are not bothered where they finish unless it is first, they know
very well that a driver is always judged against his team-mate. Hamilton has
never been beaten by any of his and it is not a record he is going to give
up lightly.
No one is going to catch Vettel. Despite losing his pole advantage within
seconds — Alonso brilliantly muscling his way past both Vettel and Hamilton
to reach the first corner in the lead — the 24 year-old had pace to burn and
made full use of it.
After a brief safety-car period caused by an opening-lap pile-up, which
claimed Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg among others, Vettel wasted no time in
hunting down Alonso and passed him with aplomb around the Curva Grande. He
never looked back.
Behind Vettel the main drama revolved around Hamilton’s titanic 23-lap battle
with Schumacher, who had to be reminded by his team principal, Ross Brawn,
at one point to “leave room” at Ascari for fear of incurring the stewards’
wrath.
Hamilton was phlegmatic afterwards, saying it was “just racing”, but you
wonder what the stewards’ view might have been had the roles been reversed.
Button sympathised with his team-mate. “I thought Michael was moving quite a
bit with Lewis,” he said. “He always went to the right, then left and back
to the right – not exactly what we agree is right. Maybe he has lost his
memory.”
The 2009 world champion, who had gone from third to seventh on the opening
lap, encountered no such trouble himself, passing Hamilton and Schumacher on
lap 16 before chasing down Alonso to claim second place for the second year
running.
Incredibly, five world champions from four teams occupied the top five places.
“It was a really fun race,” Button said. “I don’t know if we could have
challenged Seb, but when you have a start like that and you are that far
down — sixth, seventh — you haven’t got a chance really.” Not when Vettel is
driving the way he is. The tifosi may have gathered on the sun-drenched
track to acclaim their idol Alonso but they afforded Vettel a champion’s
applause.
He returned the compliment by saying: “The only thing which could have made it
better would be wearing a red suit.” He is well on his way.