“To have a strong race today, one good race, does not redeem a whole year of
negative races but it’s a start. It feels like a step in the right
direction.”
At least Hamilton
was prepared to cut himself that much slack. There is likely to be growing
concern from some within the team that he may be taking the
self-flagellation too far.
Both McLaren’s
team principal Martin Whitmarsh and managing director Jonathan Neale made a
big play last week of stressing that the whole team was right behind him.
Neale even reported that Hamilton had been given a standing ovation by the
Woking workforce.
A rumour doing the rounds out here held that such talk was covering up a
falling-out between Hamilton and McLaren in the wake of Japan, but the
driver dismissed that speculation out of hand.
“Whoever wrote that it’s a load of rubbish; I am very happy,” he said,
although without the flicker of a smile. “If I’d won the race I’d have been
even happier, but I finished second.
“I don’t know how it looked on TV but I hope it looked as good as it felt. To
keep a guy who was a second a lap quicker than me behind is good.”
Did he feel, then, that he had redeemed himself? “Time will tell,” he
answered. “It depends what you guys write. It depends how people perceive
how the race went, how my attitude is, how I behaved.
“All those things. I am sure it is a few brownie points that I scored.” For
the record, then, this was a brilliant, gutsy drive from Hamilton.
Starting from pole he got off to a good start but found himself trailing
Vettel by turn four; the newly-crowned champion clearly enjoying the faster
car.
Hamilton then developed a front wing problem, which cost him downforce, and
after a brief safety car period — the result of a hefty collision between
Renault’s Vitaly Petrov and Mercedes’ Michael Schumacher, for which the
Russian later picked up a five-place grid penalty for the next race in India
— he found himself having to fend off Webber.
What followed was a brilliant spectacle. Several times Hamilton and Webber
went wheel to wheel. Exiting their second pit stops on lap 34 the pair
swapped positions several times in a thrilling high-speed duel.
And again on lap 49 the Australian was able to pass Hamilton, only for the
Briton to re-pass him on the main straight by deploying his KERS.
Hamilton eventually hung on to take his first podium since winning the German
Grand Prix in July, but Webber never fell more than a second behind over the
final 22 laps.
Behind them the race was almost as tight with Hamilton’s McLaren team-mate Jenson
Button fighting back from an unfortunate start — in which he dropped
from third to sixth — to beat both Ferraris.
But only just. Fernando Alonso closed to within a second or two before a near
miss with a wall two laps from the finish caused the Spaniard to back off.
“I give up, I give up,” he told his team.
Button’s drive had been “solid”, Whitmarsh allowed, but the day belonged to
Hamilton.
“That was a truly fantastic race from him,” he said. “A stonking drive — and I
hope that you all recognise that. I’m sure he will before he goes to bed
tonight because that was a drive from a top, top driver.”
And had he redeemed himself? “He didn’t have to redeem himself with me,”
Whitmarsh answered. “He doesn’t have to redeem himself with anyone.”
With luck Hamilton will soon feel the same way.