Bar a catastrophe, Lewis Hamilton will wrap up his fifth title before the lights go out at Yas Marina in November, what is left of Sebastian Vettel's challenge is almost in tatters while the Mercedes driver heads to the final five rounds with a 50-point lead in the championship.
Prior to the race in Sochi, Hamilton led the standings by 40 points, if instead if winning he had finished second on Sunday his lead would have been 43.
Mercedes covered their bases by employing team orders, commanding Valtteri Bottas to allow his teammate past to victory and thus increasing the gap to title rival Vettel by an extra seven points, a step closer to the title...
Asked if he felt it necessary for his team, on the direct order of chief Toto Wolff, to make the unpopular call, Hamilton replied, “I think only time will tell. The team had mentioned that if it had not [happened] I wouldn’t have been able to get past Valtteri even though we stuck close to each other."
“If you look at what Ferrari did, for example, a few races back, if we were to lose the championship — through whether we had DNFs or whatever could come in the future — by one point, would you look back and think we should have worked as a team or not?"
“So that’s one of the conflicting things that we had and ultimately we are a team — the team want to win both championships, not just one of them so that’s why the bosses of Mercedes and our team took that decision,” added Hamilton.
Wolff took responsibility for the unloved decision, insisting that he preferred the role of "baddie to that of an idiot" in the quest to seal the title beyond doubt.
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