Lewis Hamilton’s eyes must have lit up in the closing stages at the Circuit of the Americas, when with 20 laps to go an 11 second pit stop from Max Verstappen saw him lead the race by a comfortable five seconds.
It was however too good to be true for the Brit when with only six laps to go, Verstappen overtook Hamilton down the back straight with the aid of DRS, making it look easy with the pace advantage.
Nico Rosberg, former Mercedes teammate of Hamilton, has however suggested that the Brit could have defended the move better if he better judged the power of the Red Bull.
“I wonder if Lewis, I think he underestimated in that moment how fast that Red Bull is in top speed and how quickly the Red Bull closes in at the end of that straight.
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“It was the first time Max was really that close.
“It was just difficult for Lewis to judge and understand how incredibly fast that Red Bull was down the straight,” he explained.
Rosberg, who endured a toxic relationship with Hamilton towards the end of their time together at Mercedes, has suggested that should the seven-time world champion have judged the Red Bull’s speed better, he could have put up more of a fight.
“Maybe he could have come over a little bit earlier and closed that door a bit more,” Rosberg suggested.
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Whilst Mercedes were not able to get that elusive win, a fight with a Verstappen will be taken as a positive, considering back at the start of the season the only time the German team saw a Red Bull would be when blue flags were being waved at them, as seen in Imola.
With upgrades to the car being brought to the USA, the Silver Arrows will hope that they can get their first of the season in the final three races, with trips to Mexico, Brazil and Abu Dhabi on the horizon.
Should Hamilton fail to pick up a win in the final run in, it will be the first season in his career that the Brit has failed to win a race, a record that he will not be looking to break any time soon.