Lewis Hamilton has pointed to the poor start of Valtteri Bottas at the Spanish Grand Prix as an example of the problems a single error can generate.
Bottas made slow start to the Barcelona race and dropped from second to fourth, losing positions to Max Verstappen and Lance Stroll.
Passing Stroll on lap five, Bottas was unable to recover his starting position and dropped further behind Hamilton and Verstappen at the top of the standings.
Hamilton enjoys a 37-point advantage over Verstappen in the championship race, but he is all too aware of the potential cost of a single error.
Speaking after the Spanish Grand Prix, Hamilton said: "There’s so many opportunities for error.
“You saw Valtteri’s difficult start and what that could lead to. I could have easily done that, but I delivered on all the areas that I had set out for myself and expected for myself, so I’m ultimately just really happy with it.
“I felt really content with the job that I’m required to do, but I think I was able to go above and beyond today and that just makes me happy.”
Since losing the 2016 world title to then team-mate Nico Rosberg, Hamilton has failed to finish a grand prix just once, a fuel pressure problem dropping the Briton out of the 2018 Austrian Grand Prix.
In this same period, when finishing a race, Hamilton has finished outside of the top five just four times, and has picked up 52-podums from 68 grands prix.
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