Hamilton says he should have at least two more Monaco wins

2017 Monaco Grand Prix

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Two-times Monaco Grand Prix winner Lewis Hamilton says he should have as many as five victories in the race so far.

Hamilton told the media in Monaco the race has been one that “always gets away from you”.

Monaco Grand Prix build-up in pictures
“When you think of the pace I’ve had over three years it’s always proven to be the most, not the Achilles’ Heel but kind of the unicorn of races,” said Hamilton.

“That one that just always gets away from you. There’s definitely been I would say at least two, maybe three that I probably should have had but other things came into play.”

Hamilton won his second Monaco Grand Prix in 2008 but had to wait eight years until a follow-up victory came last season. He had several near-misses during the intervening period.

“I’m grateful for the ones I’ve had,” said Hamilton. “Not many people in the world can say they have a Monaco Grand Prix win under their belt.”

“Especially the way that those two wins came about, 2008 and 2016. Sometimes quantity isn’t everything and quality is, those are real quality races that I earned so I’m proud of those ones. But of course I want to have more.”

Lewis Hamilton’s record in Monaco

YearStartedFinishedNotes
200722Said “it says number two on my car and I’m the number two driver” after starting and finishing behind team mate Fernando Alonso McLaren were investigated and cleared of using then-illegal team orders after running different fuel strategies for their drivers. Hamilton, who’d qualified with five laps more fuel on board, was switched from a one to a two-stop strategy which he felt cost him a chance to threaten Alonso.
200831Passed Kimi Raikkonen for second at the start but on a wet track he clipped a barrier, suffering a puncture. But running in clear air he jumped ahead of leader Massa, who lost time going off, and shrugged off a late Safety Car restart to win.
20091912Put McLaren’s uncompetitive MP4-24 seventh in practice but crashed at Mirabeau in Q1, ruining his weekend.
201055Started and finished behind the rapid Red Bulls plus Robert Kubica’s renault and Felipe Massa’s Ferrari.
201196A 20-second penalty for “causing an avoidable accident” with Pastor Maldonado had no effect on his finishing position. Team mate Jenson Button finished third and Hamilton made more headlines with his infamous “maybe it’s because I’m black” remark.
201235Gave his team an ear-bashing on the radio after losing a place to the late-stopping Sebastian Vettel. Alonso also jumped him in the pits.
201324Said he’d struggled to get his tyres up to temperature after team mate Nico Rosberg beat him to pole position. The pair had to pit together during a Safety Car period which dropped Hamilton behind both Red Bulls.
201422Hamilton fumed after Rosberg’s controversial parking in qualifying went unpunished. It secured Rosberg another pole position and Hamilton could only follow him home, frustrated further by an eye problem late in the race.
201513A likely win which got away. Hamilton was keen to take advantage of a late Safety Car period to pit. Mercedes decided he could come in without losing his lead, but got it wrong. Rosberg won again and Hamilton had to be cajoled into joining in the podium ceremony.
201631Confined to third on the grid due to a power unit problem in qualifying, Hamilton was waved past a struggling Rosberg early in a wet race. This time he benefitted from a strategic error: Red Bull dawdled over Daniel Ricciardo’s pit stop, letting Hamilton through for his second Monaco win.

Hamilton also won all three races he participated in at Monaco prior to F1 from pole position. These were in GP2 (2005) and the Formula Three Euroseries (two races in 2004).

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    Keith Collantine
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    49 comments on “Hamilton says he should have at least two more Monaco wins”

    1. Button should have had another win. Spoilt by safety car

      1. That was a long shot. Webber was would have probably won that race if the safety car didn’t come out.

      2. Alonso’s tire was going to take him to the end.

      3. Button? When? In 2011? I don’t know. Vettel was lucky withe the red flag, but otherwise he would probably have won the race I think, or maybe collided with Alonso (and Button?).

        1. @f1infigures – Vettel was leading comfortably before Red Bull had very poor pitstops for both drivers.

          1. @david-a It was pretty similar to what happened last year: the tires weren’t ready because they weren’t sure what tires to fit. Eventually they decided to fit softs unlike their rivals, so they didn’t have to stop again. That decision eventually won them the race.

      4. Or 2004?
        Maybe Schumacher would have won that one because he crashed into Montoya during the safety car.

    2. So if you subtract the one he shouldn’t have (last year), that makes a net +1 Monaco victories Lewis Hamilton is owed.

      I wonder which ones he feels he should have won, though? 2015 certainly, and I expect 2007 as well. I personally wouldn’t give him 2014, on the basis that he wasn’t on Rosberg’s pace in the race even if you accept that the qualifying was dodgy.

      1. He was on pace in 2014, surely enough to keep any car behind him, and later in the race Lewis was definitely faster than Nico, who had to save fuel. Hamilton also had the chance to over-cut or under-cut Rosberg, had he pitted immediately after Sutil’s crash, before the SC was deployed. Adrian’s accident sealed his fate for that race.

      2. I was going to get pole only for Nico to start reversing up the circuit

    3. Should not have won last year. Works both ways.

      1. Or 2008 for that instance. Was extremely lucky not to have damaged the suspension when he hit the wall.

    4. Well he’s right about it being a race that can get away from you, just ask RIC. But really Lewis you should blush when you claim you deserved to win in 2016.

      1. PS:@keithcollantine, an extra 10 seconds waiting for tyres to be bought out is not RBR dawdling it is RBR having a total cluster….

    5. Well, I still consider Lewis extremely fortunate in the 2008 race: he was forced to pit (after clipping the barrier) just at the right moment; a lap earlier or later and he probably wouldn’t have won.

      1. Michael Brown (@)
        25th May 2017, 0:05

        So Hamilton can’t win in Monaco with that stuff then

      2. Another Race that Massa was faster and lost due to team mistakes (and a bit os misfortune). But Hamilton’s fans will always think that he was the unlucky one.

      3. Massa made mistake after Mistake and was passed by Kubica, the moment the track dried up Lewis opened a 31 seconds gap on Massa and Kubica

      4. Neil (@neilosjames)
        25th May 2017, 9:55

        A lap earlier or later wouldn’t have made any difference. I watched that race yesterday (Sky F1 Classic Races) and all that really mattered was that he had clean air at some point. He was fortunate to get away with whacking the barrier, though…

    6. Oh poor Lewis, he should have had this and should have had that and he got robbed of his childhood and didn’t have a normal life…. that guy !

      1. “I’m grateful for the ones I’ve had,” said Hamilton. “Not many people in the world can say they have a Monaco Grand Prix win under their belt.”

        I guess you missed this paragraph.

    7. I don’t agree. I think his luck has even it self out. He could have won more, I guess he’s eager to match Senna with 6.

      1. So, having won 2 in 10 years, means he only needs to wait another 20 years to win 4 more and match Senna, at this rate.

    8. MG421982 (@)
      25th May 2017, 6:02

      Let’s hope Ferrari gets the victory this time!

    9. “it says number two on my car and I’m the number two driver”

      It was comments/behaviours like these in 2007 which didn’t endear me to Hamilton. Nothing much has changed 10 years on…

      1. Sure, but that comment was actually spot on.

      2. It says number 2 on his car because Alonso was the world champion and had number 1, nothing says he was the number 2 driver. He had number 2 in 2010 as well

      3. McLaren clearly gave Alonso that win, so Hamilton was 100% accurate.

        It wasn’t just that they gave Hamilton 5 laps of extra fuel in qualifying. They also fueled him for longer in his pit stops. And then never let him run long and actually use that fuel. So in effect they handicapped Hamilton by at least half a second per lap and still he threatened Alonso.

    10. How dare he make such remarks again (refering to be the moral champion last year when forgetting 2008). His two Monaco victories were not deserved, only obtained by luck and misfortune.
      Seems he still can’t live with the fact that Nico was simply better at this track.

    11. Should have also won the WDC last year, but wait.. he failed to beat his team mate.

    12. One more very lucky thing in 2008 – the gaps were extreme in early parts of the race. Even with an extra pit stop as early as lap 6, Hamilton only dropped to P5. With Alonso’s mistake couple of laps later, he was P4 during the SC.

    13. If he genuinely thinks he deserved last years win he’s even more stupid than I thought he was

      1. And there you have it..

    14. Maybe in his Dreams. As we all know the reality

    15. And Fernando should have 2 more championships… Many can claim to should status in race victories. In Monaco Lewis is no Senna.

      He can however make amends this sunday.

    16. In 2011 he lost his chance in qualifying when first Massa blocked him and then the session got red-flagged due to Pérez’ crash. That left him with just over two minutes to get pole position, but he was slow and cut the chicane, so he had to start from 9th place. It showed why setting a banker lap is so important here. From then on he was fighting for the minor points places instead of the win, which was a shame because he had the pace to threaten Vettel.

    17. Schumacher lost 2 easy wins in 1993 and 2000. But you didn’t ever hear him moan about how the universe owed him more than he got.

    18. Neil (@neilosjames)
      25th May 2017, 10:03

      Unsure about 2007, as my memory is hazy… the largest part of me thinks Alonso had him covered (from what I can recall) so no, I wouldn’t say he deserved that one.

      He’d have won 2014 if he’d either beaten Rosberg (who I have no doubt deliberately caused the yellows) in qualifying, or if Rosberg had received a deserved penalty, so I’ll give him that one. He destroyed Rosberg in 2015, deserved that.

      But if we’re going into drivers who ‘deserved’ this and that and got nothing, I think Hamilton is a long way from the top of the list. Although it’s worth pointing out that he isn’t ‘moaning’ as some have put it… merely stating an opinion.

      1. The only reason Alonso was competitive at all in 2007 was because they made Hamilton half second per lap slower by giving him more fuel than Alonso in qualifying and all but the last stint.

          1. Read this article again. Slooowly….

            1. @trublu 5 laps worth of fuel really isn’t worth half a second per lap in Monaco. By the way, Alonso was saving fuel in the first stint and still he was faster than Hamilton. Later in the race they were held up badly by traffic, so it’s hard to tell who was really faster then. They finished over a minute ahead of everyone else, so probably it’s fair to say that the both of them were quite fast.

    19. Actually he deserves one win less, given he lucked into a win in 2008 and 2016 but should have won 2015.

      1. There was nothing lucky about 2008, Massa went off-track of his own accord and could have very easily ended up with a DNF himself, and Hamiltons pace once in front was immense

    20. “Hamilton won his second Monaco Grand Prix in 2008 but had to wait eight years until a follow-up victory came last season.” – Wasn’t 2008 his first?

      1. His first win, but his second start.

      2. He won in GP2

        1. True, but GP2 is not competing for the title of winner of the Monaco Grand Prix.

    21. He always feels bad for himself.

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