Hamilton will not give up on title

Despite retiring from the Singapore Grand Prix in the lead of the race and falling behind his other title contenders, Lewis Hamilton has not yet conceded defeat in the chase for the 2012 F1 crown.

The McLaren driver now sits 52 points behind championship leader Fernando Alonso, 23 points behind second place Sebastian Vettel and 7 points behind Kimi Raikkonen.

With six races remaining there are still 150 points available to the 2008 Formula One World Champion and Hamilton will not give up on the title.

‘I won’t give up, I’ll keep pushing to the end. Of course, it makes it that bit harder.’ a defiant Hamilton told the BBC after the race.

Hamilton was leading the race in what appeared to be complete control, when his McLaren then exited a corner without any gears.

The McLaren gearbox failure completely came out of the blue for McLaren, with the team insisting that Hamilton’s brush with the wall in qualifying was not a factor in the malfunction.

His retirement elevated Vettel into the race lead, whilst Ferrari’s Alonso once again went on to finish the race on the podium.

‘It was gutting when the car stopped Hamilton said ‘I was cruising, I was managing the gap and could have pushed more, I had the pace. I think today would have been an easy win.

‘Nonetheless, that’s not the case. The Red Bulls did a good job, Jenson too. We’ve got six races left and I need to keep pushing. I need to win the rest of them.

‘It’s just heart-crushing when you know you have 25 points easily if you don’t have any problems, and then the problem came.’