"Not the right choice"- Former champion discloses Mercedes' 'mistake' that denied Lewis Hamilton the 2022 F1 US GP win

Former F1 world champion Jacques Villeneuve feels that pitting Lewis Hamilton for hard tires on the last stint of the 2022 F1 US GP cost him the win. The former Williams driver praised Max Verstappen for the way he first overtook Charles Leclerc and then went on to overtake Hamilton after closing down a 5-second deficit.

He said:

"Someone else who drove impressively was Max Verstappen. Lewis Hamilton had a good pace in his Mercedes and Max didn't really manage to get very far ahead of him at any moment. After his bad pit stop, Verstappen overtook Charles Leclerc with a good move and he then caught up with Hamilton first and cleverly overtook him."

He further added:

"However, Mercedes had made a mistake before by putting Hamilton on the hard tire for the final laps. That was not the right choice. In particular because the Mercedes is economical with the tires anyway and they would have been better off on mediums in the final phase, with light cars and a track with a lot of grip. Like Red Bull, which did make the right choice."

Villeneuve admitted that he felt Lewis Hamilton could have secured the win. Although for a while, it did seem like the Mercedes driver would, but Max Verstappen was able to close the gap and take the lead. The Canadian said:

"Max really went for the win. At some point, I think we all thought Lewis would take his annual win, but Max denied him it. That must be very disappointing for Lewis."

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"I'm shattered!" - Lewis Hamilton on missing out on 2022 F1 US GP win

Lewis Hamilton admitted after the 2022 F1 US GP that he was very disappointed at not winning the race for his team. The Mercedes driver has not won a race this season and this was arguably the best possible opportunity for him.

He said:

"I'm shattered. It felt amazing to be in the lead, but the car was a handful today. We came here with upgrades, and we closed the gap a little bit. It was so close, and I did everything I could to try and stay ahead, but Red Bull were just a little bit too quick."

He further added:

"We've been working so hard as a Team over this year, and there are lots of positives from this race, as a team we showed great pit stop and strategy performance. I'm also happy with my performance and it was showing when we have a competitive car, I can bring it home. So we'll keep pushing and we'll try and give it everything we can over the next three races - it'll come to us at some stage."

This is the first season in Hamilton's career where the driver has not picked up a win yet. With three races left, this might be the end of a 15-year run where he won a race every season he raced in.