'Very surreal!' Lewis Hamilton in dreamland after winning fifth F1 title
ByReuters
Updated 28/10/2018 at 22:01 GMT
Britain's Lewis Hamilton celebrated his fifth Formula One world championship on Sunday after a Mexican Grand Prix won by Red Bull's Max Verstappen for the second year in a row.
Lewis Hamilton after securing his fifth drivers' championship
Image credit: Reuters
The Mercedes driver, who equalled the five titles of late 1950s Argentine great Juan Manuel Fangio with only seven times champion Michael Schumacher ahead of them, finished fourth while Ferrari rival Sebastian Vettel took second place.
Hamilton, 33, had needed only five points to be sure of the title while four times champion Vettel had to win to have any hope of denying the Briton.
"It wasn't won here, just throughout the season and a lot of hard work," said Hamilton after doing smoking 'doughnuts' at the finish.
"To complete this when Fangio did it with Mercedes is an incredible feeling and very surreal."
In a nice sporting gesture, the Briton hugged Vettel - who interrupted his post-race television interview to congratulate his rival - and then ran back to the Mercedes garage to embrace his team one by one.
Pole-sitter Daniel Ricciardo of Red Bull retired from the race with a smoking engine.
Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen was third, meaning the constructors' championship remained open at least until the Brazilian Grand Prix in two weeks' time with Mercedes' lead trimmed.
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