Standing on the Suzuka podium after his fourth victory in five races, one which all but guarantees him his fourth world title, Lewis Hamilton looked down at the sea of faces below him and picked one out. Then he raised both hands over his head, touched them together on his scalp and did the Mobot. Sir Mo Farah, looking back up at him, responded in kind.
It was a strange end to another strange chapter in this season of twists and turns; these two British sporting superstars, neither perhaps as popular as they might be back at home, communing with each other over a sea of people in the middle of Japan. Perhaps they recognise something in the other; a kindred spirit, ruthlessness, a battling-against-the-odds mentality. Farah, for all the questions over his coach and his methods, clearly has that in abundance. Hamilton, too, although the Mercedes driver is not having to show it at present. Ferrari and Sebastian Vettel are handing him this title on a plate.
The Scuderia’s latest implosion saw Vettel retire from Sunday’s Japanese Grand Prix after just four laps with a spark-plug failure. A three-point deficit has become a 59-point deficit in the space of just three races. If Hamilton beats Vettel by more than 16 points at the next race in Austin, it will be mathematically over. In truth, it already is. Hamilton will become Britain’s most successful Formula One driver, pulling clear of Sir Jackie Stewart, when he wins his fourth world title. Whether that happens in the United States, Mexico, Brazil or Abu Dhabi remains to be seen.
He deserves it. But what a shame that it happened like this. It felt as if the oxygen had been sucked out of the season on Sunday. “Honestly, I could only have dreamed of having this kind of gap,” Hamilton admitted. “Ferrari have put on such a great challenge all year long. All I can really say is that I have to put it down to my team. They’ve done a phenomenal job. Reliability has really been on point.” Talk about rubbing it in. Ferrari’s lack of reliability, their inability to hold it together when things get tense, has become a bad joke in F1.
The writing was on the wall from the very start on Sunday; an issue identified with Vettel’s car as he made his way to the grid, where he was starting second. In an echo of Sepang the previous weekend, when Kimi Raikkonen hit trouble even before the race had started, the engine cover to Vettel’s car was removed and a swarm of Ferrari engine boffins crowded around to have a look. But it was to no avail.
