Lewis Hamilton was lucky not to have his race ruined during the first lap of the Dutch Grand Prix, Mercedes have revealed.
The Brit led the race for significant periods and, at one point, looked in contention for a first victory of 2022. It was not to be, though, as two safety car periods allowed rivals to pit for fresh rubber and left him a sitting duck over the final 12 laps.
He still managed fourth place, though, which would have felt like a poor result at the time considering the pace he had shown. But Mercedes have revealed Hamilton was lucky to be in contention at all after his first-lap collision with Carlos Sainz.
Upon first glance, the contact between them looked to be minor. Hamilton's front-left tyre touched the sidepod of the Ferrari and caused the car to wobble a bit, but both were able to carry on racing.
But Andrew Shovlin, the team's trackside engineering director, has revealed just how close Hamilton came to a much more costly outcome. "You will have heard him come on the radio and say that he had made contact and asked us to check the car," he told reporters.
"What we can do then is we can look at the tyre pressures, we can see that the tyre is holding air in it so we know that we haven't got a puncture and the other thing is we are looking at all the aero sensors on the car trying to establish if there is damage.
"Now, the damage wasn't very significant in terms of performance, but we did have damage to the front wing endplate which would have been costing in balance and a little bit of downforce on the car.
"The other thing is we had a cut in the tyre that we didn’t know about until we got the tyre back at the end of that stint. Now, luckily that didn't cause a puncture, but it would have been very close to causing a serious problem bringing Lewis in on lap one."
Meanwhile, Hamilton's chances of a strong result at the Italian Grand Prix have been hampered by news of a grid penalty. Mercedes have confirmed his car will be fitted with new engine parts, which will force the seven-time world champion to start from the back of the grid at Monza.
