A known fact? Defending Formula One world champions, Mercedes, have had the roughest season yet of their decade-long spell. From challenging for the titles, the Silver Arrows took a rather nasty tumble down the order and fell into the pool of mid-field this year. However, amidst Mercedes’ desperate search for a glimmer of hope, here’s the bitter truth – Lewis Hamilton was on the verge of putting an end to this horror spell at the British GP earlier on Sunday.

The seven-time world champion could have won the race at Silverstone, and Mercedes boss, Toto Wolff, too, admitted that on live TV. Of course, Hamilton was clinical on the track, hardly putting his foot wrong in the draining 3-hour race. But his team, on the other hand, had a rather contrasting outing, committing disastrous errors.

The game-changing moment was certainly the strategy in the build-up to Hamilton’s first pit stop. Did Mercedes keep Hamilton out for too long? Could be. But that wasn’t the end of the story. Then followed the pit-stop itself, which witnessed the best-in-business Mercedes crew delivering a below-average stop for the Briton.

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A near 5-second stop hurt Hamilton’s chances of claiming P1 as both Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz zoomed past before he could even exit the pit lane. Hence, after such a bitter-sweet end to the weekend at Silverstone, Wolff admitted that Hamilton should have been at the top step of the podium.

Toto Wolff bemoans lost race win for Lewis Hamilton at Silverstone

During the post-race interview in the paddock, Wolff felt that the untimely arrival of the safety car disrupted Hamilton’s chances of claiming his first win of the season.

“Yeah, the win was there right in front of us. He had a strong pace on the hard tire. We were literally making great inroads to catch the Ferraris and then the safety car came out,” the Austrian said.

“From then on, we lost the momentum. The tire was not as good on our car as the other one. So, it’s a shame because he and the car were quick enough for a win today.”

Overall, a tough weekend to swallow for Hamilton, considering this could have been the most epic home race victory of his career. A whole different story was there for the take and Mercedes failed to grab onto it.

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But, nonetheless, the British GP has set off the warning bells for front-runners, Ferrari and Red Bull; Mercedes and most importantly, Hamilton have arrived at the scene and will look to carry this momentum into the Austrian GP. So, can the Silver Arrows wreck Red Bull’s weekend at their own den next weekend?