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Lewis Hamilton
Lewis Hamilton has virtually lost his chance of catching Sebastian Vettel
While the race start was comparatively smooth for Hamilton, a slow puncture around lap 12 ensured he had to pit twice in the race, making it even more difficult to move up the grid.
A failed radio in the initial lap also didn’t help as the team got ready for a pit-stop, but with no contact from the pit lane, Hamilton remained to his tyre problem.
But Hamilton, despite the problems, fought hard in the Mercedes, overtaking Kimi Raikkonen in Lotus-Renault and the two McLaren-Mercedes of Jenson Button and Sergio Perez, and almost passed Romain Grosjean in the second Lotus during the last lap for a 9th place finish.
That result virtually ended Hamilton’s chances of catching Sebastian Vettel for the driver’s title, with the race outcome taking the German’s lead to 81 points and looks like a mountain to climb for the 2008 Champion with just seven races left in the season.
Nico Rosberg
Nico Rosberg
Nico Rosberg got a better run than his teammate despite problems during practice and qualifying.
He kept his cool in the first corner and drove a steady race on a one pit-stop strategy. He tried hard to overtake Nico Hulkenberg in the Sauber-Ferrari but never really had an opportunity to pass his fellow countryman despite being in a faster car.
He had a healthy cushion over Scuderia Toro Rosso’s Daniel Ricciardo, and that saw him take the Chequered Flag in the 6th place.
With the European leg coming to an end and the Asian tour next on the calendar, Mercedes can only hope that they will be able to change their fortunes around.
But the fact remains that Vettel dominated all four races in Singapore, Japan, China and India, and it won’t be a walk in the park for Mercedes or any other team to catch his Red-Bull.
