Lewis Hamilton saw his best chance of claiming a first win of 2022 vanish with just six laps remaining at the United States Grand Prix, after leading the final stages of the race at the Circuit of the Americas.
Hamilton was overtaken by fierce 2021 rival Max Verstappen down the main straight, to the dismay of the thousands of Hamilton fans watching on in the grandstands.
It was a brilliant performance by the seven-time World Champion, who has previously claimed victory five times at COTA.
The Brit started the race in third due to Sergio Pérez and Charles Leclerc both having grid penalties, something the 37-year-old made the most of.
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Hamilton was second by the time the field exited the first corner, after pole sitter Carlos Sainz spun due to being hit by Hamilton’s team-mate George Russell.
Despite being in second, Hamilton was unable to get close enough to Verstappen to overtake, so therefore attempted an undercut, which failed.
However, a second attempt at an undercut worked beautifully, as Red Bull botched the Dutchman’s second stop.
It meant Hamilton actually led a race, something which has been a rarity this season.
Unfortunately for the Silver Arrows, it was short-lived, as Verstappen recovered to overtake Leclerc and Hamilton, to claim his 13th win of the season.
Hamilton was clearly gutted after the race, in what was so nearly a fairy-tale for Mercedes.
“I mean, I am shattered,” said Hamilton after finishing second.
“The car was a handful today. It felt amazing firstly to be in the lead. That is something we have been working so hard on as a team through the year and I felt so much hope, but it’s okay.
“We’ll hold on to that, we’ll keep pushing and we’ll try and give it everything we have in the next three [Grands Prix]. It will come to us at some stage.”
Mercedes’ aero upgrades clearly made some difference in their bid to close the gap to Red Bull and Ferrari, with the 103-time GP winner admitting himself that the team “closed the gap a little”.
Hamilton was also quick to thank the record-breaking crowds at the Grand Prix, which amounted to 440,000 people across the weekend.
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“Huge thank you to the crowd here, we have such an amazing crowd,” said Hamilton.
“This is the biggest crowd we’ve had here in the whole time we’ve been here. Secondly, I want to give a big shoutout to my team. We came here with upgrades, we closed the gap a little bit.
“We were so, so close, I did everything I could to try and stay ahead [of Verstappen] but they were just a little bit too quick today. But great strategy, great race by Red Bull and again my condolences to the team,” he added, after the deeply saddening passing of Red Bull co-founder Dietrich Mateschitz.