Hakkinen thinks title race is almost over

Former world champion Mika Hakkinen believes Mercedes are heading for this season's title despite Ferrari having the superior car...

Hakkinen, who won the world championship in consecutive seasons (1998 and 1999) is referring to Lewis Hamilton's 30 point advantage as it stands even though Sebastian Vettel has the more powerful car.

"No one can say that Lewis is there because the Mercedes has a major advantage," Hakkinen told Unibet.

"He shows a great race craft and does not make mistakes of the kind that Sebastian has made, especially at race starts. But he also benefits from having a fantastic team partnership with Vatteri Bottas."

Bottas was playing a support role to Hamilton at Monza, but it looked like Vettel had to fight against his Scuderia teammate Kimi Raikkonen.

"From the moment the lights went out at the start, it was clear Ferrari had two drivers racing each other whereas at Mercedes they worked together," he added. "It was a mistake of leadership and strategy on Ferrari\s part not to sit down with Kimi and Sebastian on Saturday night and plan to run the race."

In Monza, the first lap was full of drama with Hamilton and Vettel colliding... Hakkinen believes Ferrari can make no more mistakes if they are to catch the Silver Arrows.

"To beat Lewis, Ferrari now needs to do a perfect job every weekend and hope that Mercedes has some problems," Hakkinen concluded.