Lewis Hamilton says he and Mercedes would have taken an “easy” Singapore Grand Prix victory had they used the undercut strategy.
Hamilton emerged as the main rival to Charles Leclerc through the opening stint as the front-runners lapped substantially off the pace in order to preserve tyres.
Third-placed Sebastian Vettel triggered the phase of pit stops when he came in on lap 19, with Leclerc following suit a lap later.
Hamilton was told by Mercedes to do the opposite to Leclerc and he consequently stayed out for another six laps, but he gradually drifted away from contention.
Hamilton emerged from the pit lane in fourth place, behind Max Verstappen, while Vettel’s undercut enabled him to jump into first, where he remained through to the chequered flag.
“I knew that we should have undercut,” said Hamilton. “I knew it this morning as well in the brief, I was like ‘I should take the risk’, but they [the team] didn’t.
“But we win and lose together as a team so we will take this on our chin. It’s painful for us because we could have easily won today but it just didn’t work out.”
Hamilton also urged Mercedes to step up its game in the wake of a third straight defeat by Ferrari.
“It feels like they are hungrier than us,” said Hamilton.
“We’ve just got to step it up. We’ve got the ability and we’ve got the team, we’re still the best team. We’ve just got to stop dragging our feet and get on.
“We’ll debrief or re-huddle, get back in the scrum and come back fighting at the next race.”
