Analysis: What happened to Lewis Hamilton in F1 Monaco Grand Prix

Mercedes driver has plenty to be upset about after pit call costs him the win

What could be best described as an uneventful Formula One Monaco Grand Prix was enlivened when Mercedes made a pit call that turned the race on its head.

The call resulted in Lewis Hamilton, the man who had dominated the day, tumbling down to third place behind teammate Nico Rosberg and Sebastian Vettel. And the race concluded with a dramatic eight-lap sprint to the line during which Hamilton was unable to make any progress. Rosberg thus won his third straight Monaco Grand Prix, an impressive achievement. However, even the race winner admitted that fortune had smiled on him, and this was Hamilton's race.

So how did this curious event unfold? Hamilton had the thing absolutely sewn up. From pole he made no mistakes, and through the opening stint he gradually opened up a lead on Rosberg, who had Vettel on his tail. There were always going to be limited strategic options for Rosberg to get by, as this is traditionally a one-stop race, with a stint on the supersoft tires followed by another on the softs, and a single pit stop at something between one-third and half distance.

Hamilton was some 7.6 seconds clear when Rosberg came in on lap 37, and a lap later Hamilton pitted. When Hamilton resumed, still safely in front, he continued to edge away, leaving Rosberg to keep a close watch on Vettel, who was doing a great job to keep up in the Ferrari.

Formula One Lewis Hamilton hot after Nico Rosberg wins F1 Monaco Grand Prix for Mercedes

Mercedes Formula One team boss Toto Wolff says that Lewis Hamilton is right to be angry after a pit-stop call by Mercedes cost him the Monaco win.Days after re-signing with the German F1 racing giant, ...

By lap 63, Hamilton had opened up the gap to as much as 19.6 seconds. And then rookie Max Verstappen crashed into the back of Romain Grosjean and slammed hard into the Tecpro barrier at the first corner, triggering F1's first Virtual Safety Car, which the FIA quickly switched a traditional safety car after it became apparent that it would take time to retrieve the Toro Rosso and fix the barriers.

Hamilton was near the end of the lap when the safety car call first came, and he drove past the pits at reduced speed. There were 15 laps to go, and for those with nothing to lose. And because of the advantage over those behind, a switch to fresher tires made sense.

Some of those down the order did indeed pit. Meanwhile, watching one of the big TV screens, Hamilton thought he saw activity in the Mercedes pit, which would mean Rosberg had some in. Believing that perhaps Vettel and other quick cars had stopped for fresh rubber, he feared that he would be a sitting duck at the restart, when everyone would have been given the chance to catch up.

Concerned about falling tire pressure, he had a conversation with the pits to that effect.

The team didn't realize that Hamilton thought the others had pitted. There was no need for him to take on new rubber, but given that the team's strategy, computers showed that he had sufficient margin to in effect make a free stop and emerge still in front, they called him in.

However, when he drove out of the pit lane, Hamilton was stunned to see Rosberg and Vettel flash by on the track. The pit exit ''short cut'' allowed him to regain ground, and as he blended in was more or less next to Vettel, but the Ferrari driver held his ground and Hamilton slipped back into third place -- utterly confused about what had just happened.

“You rely on the team,” he said. “I saw a screen, it looked like the team was out and I thought that Nico had pitted. Obviously I couldn’t see the guys behind so I thought the guys behind were pitting. The team said to stay out, I said 'These tires are going to drop in temperature,' and what I was assuming was that these guys would be on options and I was on the harder tire. So, they said to pit. Without thinking I came in with full confidence that the others had done the same.”

The safety car period stretched out to the end of lap 70, when the field was finally released. On supersoft tires, which had been used in qualifying, it looked like he might still have a chance of getting past Vettel and then attacking Rosberg. But Vettel did a great job of holding him off, while Rosberg made good his escape up front.

Rosberg eventually crossed the line 4.4 seconds clear of Vettel, who was in turn 1.5 seconds ahead of Hamilton. The body language of the drivers as they emerged from their cars said everything. Rosberg looked like he'd just been given a puppy for Christmas, while Hamilton had the demeanor of someone whose favorite pet had just died.

Rosberg had to get the job done on tires that were less than optimal: “We didn’t discuss pitting in the end. It was quite treacherous out there with those hard tires because they were really stone cold. They were telling me the temperatures, we’ve never ever had those temperatures before I think in those tires, but did the best I could and managed to bring them back up and push, so that worked out well in the end.”

So what happened? The team's own computers had suggested that Hamilton had enough time to make the stop, but in fact they were giving out the wrong information, to the tune of 4 seconds. At Monaco, things are compromised by the lack of the regular GPS data systems due to the busy urban environment, and there was a ''freeze'' in the information that meant the team though the gap was bigger than it was. Hamilton then lost some crucial time backed up behind the safety car just before he came into the pits, and that was enough to make the difference.

So out of nowhere Mercedes has another internal crisis on its hands. By dropping to third, Lewis lost 10 points, while Nico gained seven, and that huge swing leaves the scores at Hamilton 126, Rosberg 116. The management has apologized to Hamilton of course – these things happen – but it might take some time before he's willing to put it behind him.

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Breaking it down: Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes F1 agree on three-year contract extension

Reports in Europe say deal is worth more than $150 million

The waiting finally ended Wednesday when Mercedes chose Monaco to confirm that Lewis Hamilton has signed a contract extension with the team. After months of negotiation, the Brit has at last committed to three more years, which will cover the seasons 2016 to 2018. And he's guaranteed himself an income of around £100m (approximately $155 million), if the British media is correct.

It's big news because Mercedes is the team that any driver in the paddock wants to be in, even allowing for the lure of Ferrari and the fact that Ferrari is clearly making progress. Nico Rosberg was already committed to Mercedes for the next couple of years, so now all the other drivers know that there will be no opening at Mercedes for the foreseeable future. That's food for thought especially for Fernando Alonso, one man who might still have harbored thoughts about making a move, even though he is supposedly in a three-year deal at McLaren.

Hamilton's name had been connected with Ferrari in recent weeks, and that was suggested as a reason why news was so slow to emerge from Mercedes. Given that Ferrari was on the up, and that the magic of the name obviously has appeal even to every driver, why wouldn't he at least test the water? A Sebastian Vettel/Hamilton combination looked pretty good on paper, and appeared to be more manageable than some other pairings one might care to invent.

Was there any contact between Lewis and Maranello? Was he, as it's all too easy to suggest, just trying to up the ante and put a little pressure on Mercedes? He denies that he spoke to anyone other than his current team, so we have to take that at face value, we guess.

Indeed, on Wednesday he noted, “I said to Mercedes from the get-go that I wasn't planning to speak to anyone, and I believe they did the same...”

He added, “There was never any doubt, honestly. I was always led to believe that the team wanted to continue with me, and naturally with the success we've had, and the relationship we've had, it felt certain. I took my time, I wasn't being challenged elsewhere by another driver, which was a good thing.”

Last winter, Hamilton split with his management company -- the organization that looks after soccer star David Beckham, among others -- and in recent weeks has made a point of telling us that he was doing all his own negotiations. At one stage, he said he hadn't read the proposed contract all the way through, but more recently he said he had, and admitted that he'd found the process quite taxing given the legalese involved. He joked today that he had “earned his 10 percent,” so complex did it prove.

Lewis Hamilton is the center of attention as he strolls into the Mercedes compound in Monaco on Wednesday, Photo by LAT PHOTOGRAPHIC

The bottom line was, of course, money, and the not-surprising fact that he wanted to guarantee that as much as possible flowed into his bank account over the next three seasons. No one can blame him for holding out. He is, after all, a global brand, and compared with some U.S. sports, F1 salaries as a whole are relatively modest. Mercedes faced the nightmare prospect of a double whammy, in that if he left he would not only potentially weaken the team, but strengthen the team that he was heading to.

In the end, it was all talked through and Mercedes came up with a number that both parties found acceptable. In announcing the deal, team boss Toto Wolff made it clear how important Hamilton is to Mercedes. “We have taken the right amount of time with the process and not rushed ourselves," he said. "The result is a strong agreement that will enhance Lewis' association with the Mercedes-Benz brand, and that recognizes and respects the market value of Lewis and of Mercedes in Formula One. Lewis' sporting track record speaks for itself and he is a great personality for the company.”

Hamilton seemed relaxed when he met the media on Wednesday, well aware that he would face a grilling about the details of the contract, and the process that led to it.

“I've been with Mercedes for a long time,” he said. “They were part of getting me to F1, when I signed in '97 for McLaren and Mercedes. They were hugely influential in guiding me to F1, and I've only ever driven for Mercedes. So I wanted to continue with them, plus I joined this team and made it a success. I'm very, very happy with the package and the group of people within this team. So it was kind of a very easy decision to make, and it was also great that the team wanted to continue to work with me.”

It's true that the connections go back for years. Although we regard him as a protege of McLaren, engine supplier Mercedes was very much in the loop too when he was picked up as a teenager in karting. He used Mercedes engines in F3, and running in Euro races that supported the DTM, he was very much part of the Stuttgart manufacturer's family. And Mercedes was involved in the decision making process that saw him fast-tracked into a McLaren race seat in 2007. He knows the company, and they know him. Why give all that up and jump into the cauldron of Ferrari?

When the new contract ends, Hamilton will be 33, and on Wednesday he made it clear that he already sees himself carrying on beyond then. It's fascinating to speculate as to what his career stats might look like by 2018, assuming that the team remains the one to beat.

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