Hamilton saw chance to beat Verstappen: 'About the same pace'

Lewis Hamilton was clear after the United States Grand Prix: with a different strategy, he could have challenged Max Verstappen for victory. However, he stressed that it would still have been very close and a win would by no means be a certainty in that scenario.

Hamilton saw chance to beat Verstappen

Hamilton explained what could have been better in terms of strategy as far as he was concerned. "I was 0.18 I think it is behind Lando at the beginning and there's a huge undercut. There's a two second undercut so in that moment most likely should have probably pitted behind it and you know pitted and I would have come out ahead of most," said the Mercedes driver.

He dare not say whether he could have taken the win, but does think he would have had a good chance. "It would have still been close between us all because I think we were all similar in pace but yeah I think we just lost too much time extending," continued the 38-year-old Briton.

"I really dropped off a cliff in performance and then when I came out these guys were miles up the road you know, and when Max came into the pits he wasn't even close to me so I don't know how many seconds he gained. It must be 10 seconds on me," Hamilton said.