Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsMercedes

Hamilton hurt by missed Monaco chances

Lewis Hamilton says the missed opportunities to win the Monaco Grand Prix are stacking up but is pleased he showed he has the pace to win.

Having been dominating today's race, a strategic error from Mercedes saw Hamilton finish third after an unnecessary late pit stop. Hamilton has only won once in Monaco, while team-mate Nico Rosberg took his third consecutive victory in the principality, and he referenced the number of missed opportunities as he looks for positives despite the result.

"This is a race that has been very special ... close to my heart for many years and so it was very important, it was a great feeling leading the race," Hamilton said. "I had so much pace as I have for many many years, including last year. I could have easily had that gap last year as well.

"Today, I didn’t really have to push too much, I could have doubled the lead if I needed it so on the one hand it’s a good thing that I had that pace and I’m grateful for that. You live to fight another day."

Hamilton was clearly upset with the error, but a mature display post-race saw him refuse to criticise Mercedes.

"We will probably analyse and try to figure out what we did wrong – but we’ll collectively – together as a team – try to rectify it in the future."

Asked what was going through his mind, Hamilton replied: "Come back to win the next one."

Click here for a gallery of Max Verstappen's crash with Romain Grosjean during the Monaco Grand Prix

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.