Will Poor Starts Cost Lewis Hamilton the Formula 1 Drivers’ Championship?

By
at Internationaled.org

Published: September 4, 2016

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By now it has become an all-to-familiar refrain to the 2016 Formula One season. Again, at Sunday's Italian Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton made a poor start from pole position that cost him a chance at victory.

Hamilton has qualified first at seven of the 14 grands prix so far this year, but he has won just three of those races. His record from pole is not quite as bad as that of his Mercedes team-mate, Nico Rosberg, two years ago, but like Rosberg, his inability to turn Saturday speed into Sunday wins could end up costing him the drivers' championship.

Back in 2014, Rosberg converted just three of his 11 poles into race wins, a historically awful mark. In fact, of the 12 drivers to score at least 10 poles in a single season, Rosberg's 27 per cent win-conversion rate is the worst (tied with Mika Hakkinen's 1999 season).

Hamilton is on pace for 10 or 11 poles this year, and his 43 percent conversion rate would also rank near the bottom of that list.



Earlier this year, I questioned whether Mercedes' poor starts might cost them the constructors' championship, but their cars are so much faster than everyone else's that they can usually make up any places they lose on the first lap. The one person the Merc drivers have trouble passing if they fall behind is their team-mate.

Instead, the question should be: Will Lewis Hamilton's poor starts cost him a third straight drivers' championship?

When the lights went out at Monza, Hamilton seemed to be moving in slow motion as Rosberg and four other cars streamed past him before the first corner. When he finally reemerged in second place, Hamilton was nearly 15 seconds adrift of Rosberg—a gap that proved impossible to make up.

Rosberg's victory means Hamilton's lead in the drivers' championship is down to just two points, but it could be so much larger. In just the four races he has lost from pole, poor starts have potentia...
Article Source: Bleacher Report - Formula 1

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