Lewis Hamilton drove like a champion under the lights in Marina Bay, dishing out one of the laps of his career during qualifying and then backing it up with a solid, solid drive on Sunday, one where he controlled the race pace to perfection and never let the one’s behind pose him any kind of major threat.
However, during the dying stages of the race, there was one moment when Lewis’ heart was in his mouth, as the midfield battle between Grosjean and Sirotkin, both of whom were getting lapped by Hamilton and Verstappen, didn’t quite acknowledge the blue flag.
The mistake was largely Grosjean’s, who wasn’t willing to let up his wheel-to-wheel battle with Sirotkin.
“These guys are crazy,” Hamilton had said on the radio when the incident transpired on the race track.
In an Instagram video that Hamilton released after the race, he is seen talking about the race and how he felt when Verstappen was on his tail after being held up by the back markers.
Hamilton initially acknowledged the difficult conditions during the race and how he had to really dig deep in order to win.
He then quickly spoke about the Grosjean incident and how he tackled it.
Right when Verstappen was on his tail, Hamilton said to himself “naah bruuv, it ain’t happening”
“You are not coming by. I am not giving up this position”. he added.
Check out the video:
Verstappen though had admitted that he did not want to overtake Hamilton when he was being held up as it clearly wouldn’t have been fair to the Brit.
Charlie Whiting too was critical of Grosjean, as he continued his battle despite the blue flag.
“I think Romain forget the golden rule of blue flags and that’s if, you are in a battle, you’ve got to forget about your own battle and move over,” Whiting said.
“I’ve drilled that into them many, many times and he completely forgot about it. The light panels were flashing with his race number on and Lewis was much, much faster.
“It was one of the worst cases of ignoring blue flags that I’ve seen for a long time.”
Hamilton also stressed on the fact that this win was a reminder for people who kept questioning him about his personal life and how it might affect his performance on track.
The Brit was travelling all around the globe in order to launch is new clothing line with Tommy Hilfiger. And he was happy that the weekend panned out the way it did, as it served as a reminder for people and critics that what he does outside of the race track doesn’t really affect his focus and skill on the track.
Hamilton now has a 40 point advantage over Vettel, and looks set for his 5th WDC. Vettel and Ferrari have massively lost the plot in the title race, as the Ferrari still on paper has a better package than Hamilton and Mercedes.
