Lewis Hamilton believes he could have challenged Max Verstappen for victory at Sepang on Oct. 4 if his team had started him on the right tyres. Instead, Hamilton began on soft slicks as the damp circuit took longer than expected to dry, lost ground to drivers on intermediate tyres and recovered to the podium after the conditions changed.

Hamilton said the team’s weekend had been strong before the race. “We were having a good weekend,” he said. “The car felt great in qualifying. It felt amazing to get to second. “Me and my engineers were here ’til 11:30 last night just going over everything and I really, really felt today was the opportunity to have at least a good battle with Max.”

The start was first delayed by rain. Another delay followed a software problem during the formation lap, when several drivers, including Hamilton and Verstappen, slowed to a crawl. Hamilton said his car’s power did not return, forcing him to stop on the track and restart it before the drivers went to the pit lane.

“My power didn’t come back and I had to stop on-track and restart the car and then we all ended up in the pit lane,” Hamilton said. “Thankfully, we all got back to our positions.”

By the time race control was ready to start, the track had dried considerably but remained damp. With a long wait behind them, Hamilton and the team debated which tyres to use. Hamilton said he had seen spray during the laps to the grid and checked the ground in the pit lane and at the pit wall, where he told the team the surface was still wet.

“There was such a long wait and we were debating what tyre to go on to. And I said, ‘look, there was a lot of spray on the laps to the grid.’ “I went into the pit lane, I looked at the ground, I was like, ‘It’s still wet.’ I went to the pit wall and I was like, ‘It’s still wet.’ And they’re like, ‘Yeah, but because it’s been so long, it’s definitely going to dry up real quick and maybe we’re already in the crossover.’ “So, anyway, as a team we ended up taking that soft and when we were at the end of the pit lane and these two took off their blankets and they were on inters [I knew] we were in trouble.”

The circuit remained wet long enough for drivers on intermediate tyres to gain a significant advantage at the start. Hamilton said the team considered bringing him in for another tyre change after other cars had passed him, but he argued they should wait for the track to dry. He said he had already lost about 26 seconds and was roughly one minute 40 behind, so he saw little benefit in stopping again at that point.

“As everyone had overtaken me, they’re like, ‘we stop.’ [But] I know we’ve already [lost] another 26 seconds, what’s the difference from that with one minute 40 or whatever I was down? So I [said] ‘let’s just wait it out for the track to dry.’ And once it did, it felt good that I was catching people.”

Hamilton began making progress on the soft tyres after the Safety Car came out and he was back within range of other cars. He credited the team’s pit stops and strategy as the race developed, and said he had not expected to return to the podium after the difficult start.

“The car felt great then after that. Really good pit stops from my guys in the garage and then good strategy. “For us to get back to the podium, I never thought that that was going to be the case. But, of course, I’m really, really grateful that we managed to get back here.”

Hamilton said he would hold an “open dialogue” with the team about starting on slicks. He acknowledged there were areas to improve and said the team would regroup, take positives from the weekend and return to compete the following week. He described the car as very good and said he had viewed the race as a chance to fight Verstappen for the win, adding that a challenge might be possible next week.

“We’ve definitely got areas that we need to improve and we know that, and we’re not in any denial of that. “So I think we’ll have a constructive chat, we’ll regroup, we’ll take the positives from this weekend, which was the car was really good, and we’ll come back next week fighting. I thought today, as I said, was a chance for us potentially to try and fight Max for the win, but maybe we can do that next week.”

Based on reporting by RaceFans.