‘Greatest moment of my life’, says Hamilton after third F1 title

Hamilton now joins Ayrton Senna and Sir Jackie Stewart with three titles to his name.

Mercedes British driver Lewis Hamilton took the chequered flag and secured his third Formula 1 World Championship title on 25 October.

But a new row between Hamilton and Rosberg, who finished second, threatened to cast a shadow over the team’s triumphant season.

“Somehow, I was going to get past him in those 10 laps”, Hamilton added.

But with just eight laps of an eventful grand prix to go, Rosberg ran wide and Hamilton reclaimed the lead.

“I can’t really find the right words right this second to tell you how incredible this feels”. It is the greatest feeling I have ever had in my life.

Mercedes Formula One driver Lewis Hamilton of Britain (R) gestures with his trophy as he celebrates his victory after winning the recent Chinese F1 Grand Prix at the Shanghai global Circuit.

It appears Hamilton’s only rival to him winning a third championship in America is Rosberg. “There are four races left so it is not do-or-die this weekend”. I pushed and pushed – I hope I can inspire people to never give up. The last 10 – 15 laps were extraordinary – it was just a insane, crazy race. What an extraordinary race. “Turn One for sure was very aggressive”, said Rosberg of the incident that saw the pair bang wheels and the German forced off the track as Hamilton seized the early lead. “Maybe he can now win six if nobody can beat Mercedes in the next years, so it’s hard to say but rating a driver [comes down to] much more than a title”.

“We went in and I started to turn but I understeered into him”. I was struggling… sliding all over the place.

He thanked his crew and his family, who he said were watching, saying: “I love you all”. “I’ve watched a replay – we were both on wets and the outside is always the grippier side, so Nico had the grippier line, but I was ahead so it was my line”.