Lewis Hamilton wonders what was possible without K-Mag ‘punch’ in Spain

Albeit delighted with a scintillating recovery drive, Lewis Hamilton was left pondering what could have been without Lap 1 contact in Spain.

Starting P6, Hamilton found the Haas of Kevin Magnussen attempting to pass around the outside at Turn 4, that resulting in contact as Magnussen went off into the gravel, while Hamilton had to pit with a puncture. That left both drivers running at the back.

Hamilton wanted to retire the car at that point, but urged to carry on by the team, told that P8 was possible, Hamilton went on to far exceed that and finish P5.

It would have been P4, but a late “DNF risk” forced Hamilton and Mercedes team-mate George Russell to “lift and coast”, allowing Sainz to retake the place.

Nonetheless, without that contact with Magnussen, Hamilton ponders just what would have been possible for him in Spain as his five-race winning streak at the venue came to an end.

Voted your Driver of the Day for the #SpanishGP – and what a drive it was 👏 pic.twitter.com/QWeZhUwmrE

— Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team (@MercedesAMGF1) May 22, 2022

Speaking to Sky F1, Hamilton said: “Just really grateful I was able to come back and so grateful to the team for just keeping their head down and positive feedback coming through.

“And for the all the amazing work to get us to this improvement you know, the car felt great and the race pace is closer to the to the rest and the top guys in the race, which is amazing.

“Yeah, just really unfortunate at start to get the punches that I got, but I didn’t give up. So that’s what we do, right?

“I think if I hadn’t had that issue at the beginning, who knows where we would have been in the end, so it’s great to know that we had similar pace to some of the front runners.”

Asked to explain that issue which created the threat of retirement, Hamilton said: “It’s just a lot hotter than predicted today. And I think for everyone, it’s just it’s quite tough with these cars, and yeah, I think today…