Lewis Hamilton: ‘I was just chilling up front’

“It’s a hard, hard grand prix to win and today was one of the most difficult in terms of raining and aquaplaning”.

That means the gap has only been reduced to 12 points, with Rosberg only needing to finish in the top three in Abu Dhabi to lift his maiden F1 world title.

In the process, the Brit also ended Rosberg’s hopes of a hat-trick of Brazilian wins after the 31-year-old German had won from pole in 2014 and 2015.

As the red flag flew for the second time, after a period of “racing” comprising just eight laps, all behind the safety auto, they booed and gave the thumbs down.

Young Dutchman Max Verstappen (Red Bull) came in third after a spectacular race in Sao Paulo, where proceedings were interrupted twice by rain. Rosberg now needs a podium finish in the final event on November 27 to seal his first Formula One title win. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit being given to www.theeagleonline.com.ng as the source.

So it’s all down to the wire in Abu Dhabi with just 12 points between Hamilton and Rosberg for the driver’s title.

“I was generally just chilling out front”.

FIA race director Charlie Whiting elected to start the race behind the safety auto, which stayed out for seven laps. From that point of view they obviously make some good calls with red flags. It will be interesting to see how Hamilton responds to the challenge, and we’ll see if Rosberg can win to leave no doubt about his championship bid.

Max also did a good job.

His father and former racer Jos spoke for everyone watching when he said: ‘I must say he surprised me today.

Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo was sixth, with Romain Grosjean making an impressive seventh-place finish for Haas, formula1.com reported. Britain’s Guardian newspaper said there was little to choose statistically between Hamilton and Rosberg this season – both now have nine wins, while Hamilton has 11 poles to Rosberg’s eight. “They don’t owe me any favours and they don’t owe Nico any favours”. Michael Schumacher is way ahead on 91.

Rosberg said: “It is going to be a great, exciting race weekend, a great battle for sure”.