FORMULA 1:Timo Glock insists he did not allow Lewis Hamilton to overtake him on the final lap of the Brazilian Grand Prix yesterday to win the Formula One world championship.
With two laps of the season-ending grand prix remaining title hopeful Hamilton slipped to sixth after being passed by Sebastian Vettel.
The pair then suddenly caught Glock and surged past him on the second last corner with Vettel taking fourth and Hamilton moving into the fifth spot needed to secure the title at the expense of race winner Felipe Massa of Ferrari.
To anyone watching yesterday's season finale, it might have seemed that Glock gifted the championship to Hamilton, but the German denied he had let Hamilton intentionally pass.
"I was pushing really hard to keep fourth place and if you look at the lap times I was actually faster than Jarno (Trulli) on the final lap and he was the only other car on dry tyres at that stage," said Glock.
Most of the cars started the race on wet tyres after a downpour at the circuit before the race began.
After the track dried out the cars then changed to dry tyres but when the heavens opened with five laps remaining Hamilton and the rest of the leaders pitted to change to intermediate tyres, which have significantly more tread.
Crucially for Hamilton, Glock chose not to pit and he remained on dry tyres for the rest of the race which allowed the 23-year-old to make up the large gap between the pair with two laps left.
Intermediate tyres have significantly more grip than dry tyres which left Glock with the tough task of keeping the car under control on the slippery surface.
"I didn't even know that Lewis was directly behind me. I was concentrating so hard on keeping the car on the track," said Glock. "The final lap was one of the hardest laps I have done in Formula 1 because there was no grip at all and on dry tyres it was almost impossible to keep the car on track.
"It was not so bad until the final lap when the rain really began to come down very heavily and it was just impossible.
"It was so difficult to just keep the car on the track because it was very wet and the car was basically undriveable in those conditions. I was sliding everywhere, with absolutely no grip at all."