Lewis Hamilton unlikely to stop Rosberg, says Niki Lauda

F1 News – Lewis Hamilton is unlikely to stop Mercedes teammate and title rival Nico Rosberg from claiming his first Formula 1 world title this season, this is the prediction of team chairman Niki Lauda.

While Hamilton, starting from pole position at Suzuka, fumbled the start of the Japanese Grand Prix and played catch-up all afternoon on his way to third place, Rosberg cruised to his ninth win of the season and a 33 points lead in the championship race, with four rounds remaining.

Speaking after the weekend in Japan, Lauda said, “Nico is doing everything right at the moment. If everything is going normal, the championship could be decided in the next few races, and Lewis won’t be able to catch Nico any more. This is perfectly clear to me.”

“It is only lost and won when the points are gathered, but if nothing happens to either car, I don’t think Lewis will be able to turn it around again. I made a mistake, and then just working my way up from there was tricky,” added Hamilton.

Immediately after the race Mercedes lodged a protest aggainst Red Bull’s Max Verstappen who they believe was overly robust in defending second place from Hamilton in the late stages of the race at uzuka.

This apparently infuriated Hamilton who wrote on his Twitter that no protest was happening, “One idiot said we have but it’s not true. Max drove well, end of. We move on.”

The Tweet was deleted shortly after, but according to FIA and Mercedes an official protest was lodged and then later dropped by the world champion team.”

Category: Formula One