Lewis Hamilton insisted he could still become world champion for a fourth time after fulfilling a lifetime ambition by winning the Brazilian Grand Prix to cut Nico Rosberg’s lead to 12 points going into the final race of the season in Abu Dhabi.
Rosberg will still win his first Formula One title if he finishes in the top three on 27 November after trailing in behind his Mercedes team-mate in extremely wet conditions that featured two stoppages and five safety car deployments.
Hamilton, who moved to second in the list of grand prix winners behind Michael Schumacher, believes he still has a strong chance to complete his comeback having at one stage trailed Rosberg by 33 points.
“I’m still hunting, hunting. I will give it everything I’ve got in Abu Dhabi, which has generally been a good track for me,” he said. “Nico has finished every race this season, so beating him is going to be difficult. But I will take the speed I’ve got to try to win the race.”
Referring to the conditions, Hamilton added: “It was understandable for the first red flag with everyone going off. I don’t really understand why the second stop came but rain is the trickiest of conditions. If people didn’t make mistakes, it would be too easy and everyone could do it. We run at serious speeds and there is a lot of water for the tyres to disperse and they struggle the faster we go.”
Immediately after the race he had given the impression his 52nd victory was a bit of a breeze. He told the Sky commentator Martin Brundle from the podium: “I was genuinely chilling up front. When it rains it is usually good for me. There were no mistakes, no issues, no spins. It was interesting hearing about so many people having slips but I didn’t have any.”
Hamilton added: “I feel grateful and incredibly happy. This has been my dream since the first time I saw Ayrton Senna race when I was five or six. This experience is so surreal and won’t kick in until later after all the years of trying to win this grand prix and all the emotions that go with it. It is a hard grand prix to win and this was one of the most difficult of all.”
He will face a battle from Rosberg, who fought off a strong challenge from the 19-year-old Max Verstappen. “I was hoping for the win but second is OK,” Rosberg said. “I will be trying to win the last race. I’m feeling good.”
Verstappen was called in for an unnecessary extra pit stop by Red Bull while leading Rosberg but managed to battle his way back to third place. He said: “A win was maybe not possible but second was.”
His father Jos added: “I must say he surprised me. I’ve seen many races he did and today it was incredible. He did himself a big pleasure. They didn’t have the right strategy but it was worth having a bad stop!”
Mercedes’ non-executive chairman Niki Lauda praised Verstappen junior after the race. He said: “Verstappen was outstanding, the way he passed everybody. He did a job that was so impressive. I knew the guy was good but he proved it again to everybody.”
