It could be his only chance, maybe he should repeat what Hamilton's hero did to Prost. Hamilton is due a retirement too, let's just hope it's Abu Dhabi..
Lotus F1 Team ‏@Lotus_F1Team 4m4 minutes ago Hey @JeanEricVergne, @RGrosjean's a little annoyed at what you did to his car! Thanks for returning it @ToroRossoSpy please log in to view this image
My maths might be wrong here, but if we had Han winning the next race with Ros second, Ham would lead by 31 points. If Ham then got a DNF in Abu Dhabi and Ros came second, Ros would win the championship by 5 points despite it being 11 wins to 4. I would be ready to start a one man riot if that happened.
Too much risk with trying anything stupid to win the title from the position he's in. Hamilton on the other hand could do something stupid to claim the title. Hopefully not though.
lewis has had 1 more dnf already this season,so why is he due another retirement.nico only has 1 more win than ric,he doesnt deserve to win the wdc.noone cheered nico on the podium,only lewis and ric got cheers.
It's the only way he can win now, a retirement in Brazil even would be alright. 1 point within the championship and an all out fight in Abu Dhabi. This has 2010 over it, a very anti climactic championship with some terrible races near the end of the season.
For interest, on lap 55 or 56. Granted some were basically a lap behind at this point! please log in to view this image
So Nico out qualifies Lewis more often than not this season but Lewis is faster in the race. Because of the tyre make up, most cars have to do most of the race on the primes (usually two stints to the softs one) with around 70% or more of most races on the harder tyre. With this I wonder whether Lewis has been setting up his car up more for the harder tyre rather than the softs, with Nico doing the opposite. Could explain why Nico is better in quali but Lewis is in the race, if most of the race is done on the hard tyres. If I remember correctly, today he had two extra turns on the front wing for the hard tyres, I can't remember whether Nico had the same or not... but it may suggest Lewis knows the set up on the prime tyres better (because he focuses on that?). May not be related... Of course sometimes Lewis will be quicker on the softs than Nico as well, but today Nico was able to keep Lewis behind when both on the softs (Lewis' tyres were damaged from Q2), but not when both changed to the hard tyres. As to the championship. Yeah I think Nico will try to do something dirty in the final race. Even if he was disciplined afterwards, with a championship at stake it would be worth it (and thats all the history books will remember... unless it is revoked afterwards), and ultimately, the only way he can beat Lewis now I think (to the title). It would also be the only way Nico "has his fate in his own hands", otherwise he needs a DNF or problem with Lewis' car or others to take points off Lewis (very unlikely).
True but he only has himself to blame, his race craft has been average compared to Hamilton's so he has lost valuable points.
Hamilton has been excellent the last few races. He has added something to his game that Nigel Mansell began to learn as he became older and wiser- patience. He wants to be super fast, he knows he has the raw speed, he knows he has the car. What he has learnt now is how to drive in the pocket and saving his tyres. There is a wonderful video of Mansell on youtube backing off into 3rd and allowing Ricardo Patrese to go and to the chasing of Senna. Mansell then saved his tyres, let those two scrap it out, and then launched past them late on [video=youtube;5Qg6G7I4RS4]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Qg6G7I4RS4[/video] What a racetrack Austin is- hopefully we'll have some closer battles at the front in the coming years. Was a bit odd having that vast circuit with no noise though?
Isn't Lewis pretty Handy around Abu Dhabi? Seem to remember him being absolutely mighty one year there for McLaren... though i think his car broke down in the race when he was miles in front?
Vettel to Ricciardo, Raikkonen to Alonso, Chilton to Bianchi - their racecraft has been average compared to their teammates; Rosberg and Hamilton are generally relatively close in most straight fights by race end, even if it is Hamilton that wins out most of the time.
Rosberg completely thrashed him last year, but he's had a few poles and a win there. Brazil is a weak track statistically for him though.
True, but i get the feeling last year was rear tyre related in the '13 Merc that generally ate them anyway. This year if anything Hamilton as generally been better on his tyres than Rosberg.
Doesn't matter - If Hamilton beat him by 0.1 seconds, dead-heat-to-the-finish-line-style every time, would that make Rosberg average? There's beating someone, and then there's flogging someone. Beating them doesn't necessarily make them average. Vettel made Webber look average - this is entirely different.