Sir Lewis Hamilton and the Mercedes F1 Team will be wondering what could’ve been had the seven-time World Champion not been involved in an opening lap collision which dropped the Brit to nineteenth.
Hamilton, who started sixth, was the only driver who opted to start on the medium compound, whilst everyone else was on softs.
This saw the British driver struggle for grip on the opening corners, where at Turn 4 his race took a problematic turn.
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On the opening lap, Hamilton got a kick of understeer at Turn 4, which caused a collision with Kevin Magnussen who was alongside the Mercedes driver on the outside of the corner.
The collision saw Hamilton pick-up a front-left puncture, dropping him to nineteenth and thirty-six seconds off of the next car.
The British driver was quick onto the radio, suggesting his team to retire him from the race.
“I would save this engine, guys, if I was you,” said a devastated Hamilton on lap five.
“I’m sorry.”
However, the team refused to let Hamilton simply retire, informing him that eighth or ninth was possible.
The Brit got his head-down and got to work, incredibly as the fastest car on circuit.
Hamilton was clocking consistently fast lap-times, which saw him claw his way up to fourth.
In the end, Hamilton finished fifth due to a late water leak issue but nevertheless only finished eighteen seconds behind George Russell.
Hamilton was very upbeat and suddenly full of confidence after the race, with Juan Pablo Montoya believing his confidence is back.
“I think George, in one-lap pace, is doing a much better job than Lewis,” Montoya said on Sky Sports’ Any Driven Monday.
“He’s getting more out of the car in one lap.
“But you look at what Lewis did [on Sunday], it’s kind of weird that he went on the radio and told the guy ‘lets park the car’ and kind of gave up.
“I understand why he did that being at the back and thinking there is nothing to do and the car hasn’t been competitive the last few races.
“I think it was a surprise for him how quick the car was through the race and if he didn’t have the incident on the first lap, he probably would have had a chance to win the race.
“I think he got excited half way through the race when he started getting into the points and he saw his pace being really quick. I think that got him excited to run harder and harder and harder.
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“When Lewis is on his A-game it’s hard. George can do a job on one lap, but he’s got a lot to learn from Lewis on race pace. That’s where Lewis – thing thing when Valtteri was there, the pace of Lewis on the races was incredible,” Montoya concluded.
It wasn’t just the 37-year-old who was fired up after the race, as was Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff.
Wolff explained why they made Hamilton continue and how most importantly they “never give up”.
“If you can’t go in the top positions, you are creating a lot of mileage. You are learning. We are racers. We never give up,” said Wolff.