Despite a bad-looking start to the Singapore GP, where Lewis Hamilton complained about his car in both free practice sessions on Friday and his ‘no Q3 for Mercedes’ note, the seven-time world champion managed to improve on Saturday. 

The British driver pulled off an amazing lap during Saturday’s qualifying and squeezed his W15 in third place, securing him a second-row start on Sunday.

However, Sunday’s race didn’t really go as Hamilton hoped it would. Mercedes decided to split strategies for their two drivers with Hamilton starting on soft tyres and Russell on mediums.

Hamilton, who won at the Marina Bay Street Circuit four times in his career, which is more than any active F1 driver, wasn’t pleased with the decision but didn’t manage to convince his team to change their minds.

“We sat in our meeting in the morning of the race, actually the night before they already mentioned that they would like to split the cars,” Hamilton, quoted by RacingNews365, said at an event for Mercedes' sponsor Petronas.

“And for me, I was a bit perplexed by it. Because in the past, when we’ve ever been in that position.

“Normally if George has qualified well like he normally does and I’m out of the top 10 or something, then we’ll split the strategies, but when we were so close, it didn’t make sense to me.

“So I battled as hard as I could to fight to go on the medium tyre, but the team continued to suggest that I started on the soft.

“And then when they took the tyre blankets off, everyone was on mediums.”

The Mercedes driver expressed frustration over his team’s decision, which he didn’t manage to overturn.

“I was so angry, so already from that moment I’m frustrated,” Hamilton stated.

“And then I tried my best to keep up with the guys ahead. They were too fast. 

“And then I just tried to make that tyre last as long as could and I had to stop on Lap 17.

“I knew from that moment, then the race was done for me because the hard tyre was going to be a struggle in that heat.

“And we’d been struggling with the balance of the car all weekend, so we were changing so many different things. We got a good qualifying, but unfortunately, the race was too much of a struggle for us.”

Hamilton was overcut by his teammate Russell later in the race and ended up crossing the finish line in sixth, marking his second poorest career result around the streets of Singapore.

Russell, who was also present at the event, added:  “When I saw that, I was thinking: ‘Lewis won’t be happy’.”

After the Singapore Grand Prix, Mercedes sits in fourth place in the Constructor's Championship, losing 112 points to third Ferrari and 187 to McLaren in the lead.

Lewis Hamilton is currently sixth in the Driver's Championship with 174 points, needing 157 points to equal first Verstappen.