Last 5 times Lewis Hamilton lost a race he should have won

Lewis Hamilton has had an illustrious F1 career. He made his way to the sport as a young kid in 2007 and mesmerized everyone. In his very first season, he took on the challenge of having Fernando Alonso as a teammate and excelled.

The Brit almost won the title in his rookie season but it did not take him long to win his first title and he became the youngest to achieve the feat. Since then, it has been more than 15 years that the driver has been part of the sport, and bit by bit he's become the most successful driver in F1's history.

With more than 100 wins to his name and being the only one to achieve the feat, Hamilton has truly set himself apart from everyone else. Having said that, there have been times in his career where he has missed a step and lost out.

In this feature, we will take a look at the last five races where Lewis Hamilton should have won but ended up losing.

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When Lewis Hamilton lost a race she should have won

#1 2021 F1 Hungarian GP

The 2021 F1 Hungarian GP is one race that Lewis Hamilton would look back on even today as it probably cost him the title.

While we all know what happened in the last race of the season and how Michael Masi's decision impacted the title race, Hamilton lost the title by eight points.

How did he lose them? Well, it came down to the fateful decision of being the only driver on the grid to not pit for slicks for the Red Flag restart. This dropped him too far behind everyone else and while he was eventually able to make progress and finish second, Hamilton lost a victory that was nothing more than a formality.

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#2 2021 F1 French GP

Sometimes you lose a race when you miss your mark but sometimes you lose a race when the team messes things up. The 2021 F1 French GP was one such race and it all came down to the undercut which was inadvertently triggered by Mercedes itself.

Lewis Hamilton, Max Verstappen, and Valtteri Bottas were running in formation in the top three spots reflected when Mercedes decided to pit Bottas and trigger the first round of pitstops. Instead of pitting Hamilton on the very next lap when Verstappen pitted, Mercedes kept him out for another lap which left the driver vulnerable to an undercut.

As it turned out, Verstappen made the most of the undercut and got the jump on Hamilton. From that point onwards, the Red Bull driver switched to a two-stopper late in the race with Hamilton as a sitting duck as the Brit lost.

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#3 2020 F1 Italian GP

Lewis Hamilton and Pitlane Red Flags have an old and bitter relationship. The race in Italy in 2020 was almost in the bag for the Mercedes driver. He held a commanding lead and the car was just levels above everyone else.

Late in the race though, Charles Leclerc would crash out at the parabolica bringing out the Safety car. With an incident at the pit exit as well, the pitlane was closed and the red light was on.

Hamilton somehow missed the red light and went straight into the pits. As a result, he was given a drive-through penalty and ended up losing what should have been a comfortable win.

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#4 2019 F1 German GP

Another race where Lewis Hamilton had everything under control and it should have been a cakewalk. The mixed conditions with rain and dry parts throughout the race meant that the drivers needed to be careful with how they approached everything.

However, what was clear early was how much quicker the Mercedes cars were than everybody else irrespective of conditions.

Unfortunately for Hamilton, he would make a mistake that sent him straight off the track and caused damage to his car. From that point onwards, the win was an afterthought as he limped home for a finish.

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#5 2018 F1 British GP

This one was more a case of misfortune than anything else as Lewis Hamilton started his home race in pole position and was the favorite to win. However, Kimi Raikkonen and Hamilton had contact at the start of the race.

The contact meant that Hamilton was out of contention for the win from that point onwards. Even though he climbed his way back through the field, the Brit could not stay in contention for the win.