Lewis Hamilton on collision course with Mercedes

All three podium finishers started oblivious to the carnage behind them. The tyres were fine, so I honestly felt I could have taken them to the end, but that didn’t work.

Romain Grosjean had his last race in Lotus before moving to the newly formed Haas team for next year and, after a five-place grid penalty for changing his gearbox, ended just inside the points in ninth. “I’m happy. I’m happy it’s over, for sure, so now we can really enjoy”.

But Wolff said: “I wouldn’t say it is the most likely suspicion”.

“Of course, it’s too late but I don’t look back”.

Hamilton was disappointed to miss out on the victory, but drew comfort from the fact he had already clinched the title in Austin.

“He is still pushing very hard – he still has the same talent and puts the same effort into his races”.

“My tires were done at the end of the first stint sitting behind Nico”.

Ferrari hopes to mount a season-long challenge against Mercedes next season, those Red Bull boss Christian Horner thinks the current regulations makes it likely the world champions will dominate again in 2016. “But since then I’ve come back a lot stronger”.

Thanks to its drivers, the Mercedes team has sealed a record-breaking 12 one-two finishes this season, surpassing the team’s own 2014 benchmark.

Wolff added: “After Singapore we developed in a different direction and whether the vehicle has come more towards Nico and gone away from Lewis, I don’t know”. We could have been closer but I think we have a reasonably good speed and at certain points, we have been catching our competitors.

“It’s never nice to finish third but I’ll take it after previous races”.

Kimi Raikkonen was a lonely third for Ferrari to seal fourth in the Drivers’ standings ahead of Sebastian Vettel, who cut through the field after starting a lowly 15th place. He was arguing about staying out for the whole race, but the team said this was an “impossible” gamble. Verstappen was muscled off the circuit but kept his foot in and completed the pass anyway, earning himself a time penalty for leaving the track and gaining an advantage. The pace was good, especially in the first and final stint, the vehicle was also good and I managed to do some overtaking. “Next year can come any moment – it could start tomorrow, I don’t need any holidays – and it is great to end the season like this”.

Ferrari’s erratic weekend continued with another bungle in the pits when Raikkonen’s right front wheel refused to budge easily during a tyre-change, the Finn losing time that dropped him to fourth behind Vettel. Daniel Ricciardo sandwiched his Red Bull in between the two in sixth, while Felipe Massa was the only Williams in the top points, taking eighth.

Hamilton was comparatively slow off the mark on an opening lap that saw McLaren’s Fernando Alonso collide with Lotus’s Pastor Maldonado.