This time a championship title is going to be a tough bid for this defending world champion who fell 33 points behind Mercedes teammate and the title rival Nico Rosberg after a disastrous weekend at the Japanese Grand Prix. With just four races to go in the 2016 Formula One season, this is now a tough game for Hamilton to reverse his fortunes and win a fourth world title. Sunday’s race at Suzuka circuit seemed to seal Hamilton’s fate but an earlier series of social media posts had set the tone for his bumpy ride. After losing the pole position to Rosberg by just 0.013 seconds in qualifying, he had started second on the grid and had to get the jump on his rivals at lights out however Hamilton went backwards. So, on a must win weekend he made the worst start of his year.
If paid attention Hamilton’s troubles started much earlier than lights out on race day. Lewis Hamilton, the three time world champion who has immense media following which totals more than seven million on Twitter and Instagram combined had set the tone for the weekend during his FIA media appearance on Thursday. It was made mandatory for Hamilton to appear in the television question and answer session with global journalists because an engine blowout had cost him almost a certain victory at the Malaysia GP just four days back.
It was way too much for Lewis Hamilton as there were many questions that needed answering. However Hamilton positioned front and centre was absorbed in his mobile phone all the time posting annotated photos of himself and Toro Rosso driver Carlos Sainz Jr. on Snap chat. His bizarre behaviour led to accusations that he lacked respect while others defended him for reaching out his fans on social media rather than paying attention during a media conference. All in all there were four question to Hamilton out of which two were about his use of social media.
Later Hamilton expressed his behaviour through his tweet “Today was meant to be fun, not at all disrespectful. Some people take themselves too seriously. I had a blast, highlight of my day!”
As per the current stats he is not out of the title running but his chances are less and depends upon if he can add it all to his head and focus on the race.
“I don’t really plan on sitting here many more times for these kind of things,” he told reporters in Suzuka before walking out.
