It is time to take things seriously – Lewis Hamilton
After retiring for three races out of the last four, McLaren’s current leading driver Lewis Hamilton is aware that he cannot afford another retirement in the final four races if he is to keep his title hopes alive. However, the former champion will have
to be careful as he might lose some serious points. He needs to close on the championship leader Mark Webber.
Lewis Hamilton finished in third place on the podium at Suzuka last year, keeping in mind McLaren was not up to the pace of the Red Bulls and Toyotas last year. However, the former champion hopes to score this time as he is in a strong car.
Lewis believes that Suzuka is an unfinished business affair for him as he raced the best last year, but the car did not help him in anyway.
This year, I’m holding nothing back - I need a strong result to get my title hopes back on track, and that will be my complete focus from the moment I first sit in the cockpit on Friday morning”, he said.
The British driver hobbled out of the last race at the Marina Bay in Singapore due to suspension damage after contact with Webber’s Red Bull that the stewards considered a racing incident. A similar incident at Monza ended Hamilton’s race after he ran into
Felipe Massa’s Ferrari. However, if Lewis faces another retirement, he would have to kiss his title hopes goodbye for the 2010 season.
Suzuka is a legendary circuit and has had one of the most exciting races in the history of the Formula 1. It is a versatile track with all sorts of characteristics and it seems that the Formula 1 universe will witness the clash of the titans this weekend
as all the teams are confident and are hoping for the best result.
“It’s a real driver’s circuit - you need to be committed and precise to do well there, and there’s no room for error either: no tarmac run-off and all the barriers are pretty close, so any mistake is going to hurt your chances big-time,” he added.
After the Singapore Grand Prix, Hamilton dropped from 2nd place to 3rd place in the drivers’ table. The McLaren driver is now 20 points short of the leader Mark Webber and 9 points short of Fernando Alonso in 2nd place. There
are just 4 races remaining in the 2010 season and the end is going to be pretty tight with all three teams, 5 drivers battling it out for the grand prize that is the Formula 1 championship. It seems that McLaren is hoping to outpace the Red Bulls and the Ferraris
and Lewis knows that he must attack carefully at the Japanese Grand Prix in order to stay in the drivers’ championship. Lewis Hamilton has been predicted as the winner of the 2010 championship by many critics but after the past 4 races, his chances of winning
are very low and it seems that the former world champion will have to give in something more and keep his cool in order to win.
“Now is not the time to hold back; now is the time to fight,” he concluded.
This statement might prove to be controversial for Lewis as he made 2 very silly and desperate attempts at Felipe and Mark at the Monza and Singapore Grand Prix respectively leading to pointless finishes. The McLaren driver will have to be very careful and
think about scoring the maximum points if he wants to win the title this year. McLaren at first after the Italian Grand Prix did not seem disappointed with Lewis but things have certainly changed after his 2nd consecutive retirement at the Singapore
Grand Prix. His team cannot afford another retirement as it might cost them the constructors’ title as well. Jenson Button on the other hand is scoring consistently but has not been aggressive at all. Both of the drivers have a different strategy so it will
be quite interesting to see how McLaren performs at the Japanese grand prix.
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