'%20x='0'%20y='0'%20height='100%25'%20width='100%25'%20%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20xlink%3Ahref='data:image/jpg;base64,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'%3E%3C/image%3E%3C/svg%3E)
Lewis Hamilton had a howler of a race at the Marina Bay Street Circuit in Singapore this past weekend. The Mercedes driver started the race in P3. After a crash into the wall and a slide off the track while trying to overtake an Aston Martin, Hamilton finished the race down the order in P9.
Once the race was over, there was an impression that Mercedes just did not have the pace to keep up with the Red Bulls and the Ferraris.
To an extent there is validity to that, but what if we told you that Lewis Hamilton could have won the Singapore GP? Yes! That's right, if the driver had executed a perfect weekend there was a legitimate chance of him securing his first win of the season.
Having said that, there were small mistakes sprinkled all over the race weekend that denied Hamilton from getting the win. So how could Lewis Hamilton have won the 2022 F1 Singapore GP? Let's find out!
The final qualifying lap mistake cost Lewis Hamilton pole position
Lewis Hamilton was close to 7 tenths of a second quicker than Charles Leclerc on his final lap before making the mistake at Turn 16. This was something that Hamilton alluded to in the post-qualifying press conference. Speaking about the tricky conditions, Hamilton revealed that he made a mistake at turn 16 and lost time. He said:
"I was giving it my all but I think for all of us, just very tricky conditions. For them, it was Turn 13; for me it was Turn 16, was a bit of a handful, lost a bit of time there, but I still have to be grateful to be on the front row (sic). And yeah, we'll see what we can do from here."
As it turns out, Lewis lost close to 8 tenths in that particular sequence and that resulted in a P3 start as compared to a pole position start. Starting the Singapore GP from pole position as compared to starting it from P3 is a completely different story, as seen on Sunday.
Lewis Hamilton lost out on pole position by about half a tenth of a second (.054 seconds), if not for that mistake on the last lap, that pole position was his and so was a prospect of a much better race.
Getting swamped at the start by Carlos Sainz
What made things exponentially worse for Lewis Hamilton was getting swamped at the start by Carlos Sainz. The Mercedes driver had a good start off the line but was just pushed off the track by Sainz who had the inside line.
What followed was a rather frustrating phase of the race for Hamilton. After a few initial laps in the race where he struggled to bring the tires up to temperature, Lewis Hamilton was able to pick up the pace. He was matching the pace of the frontrunners Sergio Perez and Charles Leclerc.
That was until he closed up to Carlos Sainz and got stuck behind him. The Spaniard admitted after the race that he was struggling with confidence in the car and was more than half a second a lap slower than the leading duo. Hamilton would be frustratingly stuck behind Sainz as the gap between the leaders and him would increase to around 10 seconds.
Crashed into the wall just before the window for a switch to slick tires opened
Then came the final nail in the coffin for the Mercedes driver as he crashed his car into the wall at Turn 7 and completely wrecked his evening. All of this happened near the time when the teams were making a switch to slick tires. George Russell, who was essentially a guinea pig in all of this, had been able to fire up his tires and was starting to fly.
In a lap or two, Lewis Hamilton would have made a trip to the pits for a switch to slick as well. If Mercedes had timed it perfectly, Hamilton could have been able to make the jump on Carlos Sainz, and then who knows what he could have done as he joined the battle for the lead against Charles Leclerc and Sergio Perez.
Conclusion
If Lewis Hamilton had qualified in pole position, there was a very good chance he would have won the race. If he did not get stuck behind Carlos Sainz in the race, he would have been able to keep the front-running pair in check. He would have been in the fight for the win. With Lewis Hamilton getting stuck, all those hopes were out of the window.
Finally, if he had not binned the car into the wall, Lewis could have leapfrogged Sainz during the pitstop and then gone after the front runners. All in all, if Lewis Hamilton had a vintage weekend where he did not make those mistakes, a win was certainly a possibility for him.
