Lewis Hamilton: Mexico Grand Prix win down to Mercedes gamble as team chief Toto Wolff admits he almost retired race winner

LEWIS HAMILTON’s Mercedes bosses feared they would gift-wrap the title to Nico Rosberg after weighing up plans to RETIRE the Brit from the Mexico GP.

Hamilton recovered from a first-lap brake problem to win the race and reduce Rosberg’s advantage in the championship to 19 points.

But Merc chief Toto Wolff says the team were considering calling in Hamilton to the pits because they were worried his car’s suspension would break.

He said: “All the bad luck Lewis had through the season, he got some of that good luck back.

“He badly flat-spotted the tyre and the vibration metrics were scary from the beginning. We had quite a conversation on the radio about whether we should pit him for safety reasons.

“In any other race, we would have pitted him and lost the race. We kept him out there in order to not throw away the championship for him.

“Every single lap, every single straight we monitored the vibrations. Our team did a fantastic job in really keeping that under control because a suspension failure could have easily happened.

“It was not a comfortable situation we found ourselves in to make that call, weighing up the championship versus a failure of the suspension.”

Meanwhile, Hamilton says he is not yet prepared himself for the thought of surrendering his world crown to his bitter rival.

Rosberg can win the title with a victory in Brazil, however, Hamilton says the pain of seeing the German win would not be as bad as when he missed out to Kimi Raikkonen in his debut season.

He said: “I don’t know how you can prepare for losing. I don’t think you can prepare to lose.

“I have experienced it before. I lost in 2007 and I know it won’t be as painful as then.

“I have lost many races and championships in my career so it is not like I haven’t experienced it.

“I am in a scenario now where there is more of a chance I will lose it than chance I will win it. It is hard to swallow but it is what it is.

“Life will move on, I will move on — I still have three. I really hope next year I don’t have reliability problems.

“It is definitely an unusual scenario I am in, I will push all the way until the end and one way it can be painful and one way it can be a great thing.

“All I know is, in the beginning of my career in F1, right to the last minute, it changed. That is why I cannot give up.”

Meanwhile, Rosberg is fusing to get carried away by thoughts of landing his maiden title.

He added: “It’s cool to be in that situation but I never change my approach, that’s what feels best, where I can perform at my best.

“There are still two races to go anything can happen in sport, so why waste energy on something like thinking about the title? I just stay in the moment.”