Hamilton takes no joy from result as race overshadowed
Sunday 5 October 2014 14:13, UK
A sombre Lewis Hamilton has described his victory in the Japanese GP as inconsequential after the race was overshadowed by Jules Bianchi’s crash.
The podium ceremony at Suzuka played out with understandably little fanfare as drivers and teams waited with mounting concern for news of Bianchi’s condition after the Marussia driver was taken to local hospital in an unconscious state.
Given the circumstances, Hamilton’s post-race thoughts were naturally with the young Frenchman.
“Obviously it’s a real anti-climax to hear that one of the drivers is seriously injured,” Hamilton told Sky Sports F1. “I was going through that sector and I could see there was a tractor lifting away one car.
“It was until when it was red-flagged that I could see there was another car in the mix there. I’m just hoping for him and hoping he will be ok.”
With the poor weather gripping Suzuka ahead of the expected arrival of Typhoon Phanfone having proved the dominant talking point ahead of the race, Race Control started the event behind the Safety Car before an immediate increase in the rain prompted them to red-flag proceedings on the second lap.
A 20-minute delay ensued before officials judged conditions had improved sufficiently for the race to be restarted, initially behind the Safety Car again before green-flag racing on lap ten, and Hamilton believes the conditions were safe enough to drive.
“They [conditions] weren’t really that bad. I’ve had much, much worse races in terms of aquaplaning and stuff,” Hamilton said. “It started really badly and it got quite intense and they stopped the race. Then we went back out and it was good. We were behind the Safety Car for a little bit too long – I kept saying on the radio ‘we are are good to go, we are good to go’ because the track was great.
“Towards the end it started to rain a little bit more but it wasn’t causing me any problems particularly. But it’s so easy to lose temperatures in these tyres if you slow down a bit and then it’s very, very difficult.”
In any other circumstance Hamilton’s 30th career win and eighth of the season would have been cause for celebration given it increased the Briton’s championship advantage to ten points and achieved his target of finally winning at famous Suzuka.
The victory was also achieved by overtaking team-mate and title rival Nico Rosberg and of the pass around the outside of Turn One Hamilton said: “The move on Rosberg felt quite textbook really. I was really surprised about how close I was able to follow Nico. I had great pace.”
