It seems odd to say that someone who crashed at close to 160mph, receiving an impact of 30G, could be considered fortunate.
But that description fit Lewis Hamilton at the German Grand Prix last weekend.
You see, if the brake failure on his Mercedes-GP car, which happened on Saturday during qualifying, had occurred 24 hours later, the 2008 world champion would have left Hockenheim with zero points to his name.
While the incident wrecked any chance he had of winning the race, since he was forced to start in 20th place, it allowed him to score points and minimise the damage that was going to be caused to his championship hopes by the inevitable victory of teammate Nico Rosberg.
Third was not what Hamilton wanted going into the weekend, but at least he scored 15 points, only 10 fewer than to Rosberg, rather than dropping the 25 he would have lost had the brake failure happened during the 67-lap race.
Hamilton comes into this weekend's Hungarian Grand Prix 14 points adrift of his teammate, knowing that if he wins here and again in Belgium on August 24, he will be back on top of the standings.
Playing catch-up has been the story of the season for Hamilton.
Three mechanical problems have cost him valuable points and allowed Rosberg to pull clear, and the first two times, he has been able to pull that deficit back.
An engine power failure in the season opener in Australia saw him retire, as Rosberg’s victory saw him pull 25 points clear.
Hamilton then won the next four races to erase the deficit and actually go three points ahead.
In Canada, both cars suffered power problems and brake issues, but while Hamilton was forced to stop, Rosberg finished second and scored 18 points.
Rosberg actually extended his lead to 29 points with a win in Austria – the biggest points lead this season so far – but the German’s gearbox failure in Britain allowed Hamilton to win and take 25 points back.
The gap was four before Germany, but Hamilton’s misfortune, which ensured he could not challenge for victory, allowed Rosberg to open up a small gap yet again.
It increasingly looks as if reliability could decide the championship, especially with the Mercedes cars proving so dominant.
No other car has finished a race ahead of a Mercedes that has not had its race compromised in some shape or form.
Rosberg’s Mercedes was heavily hampered by a lack of power and brakes in the closing laps of the Canadian Grand Prix, allowing Daniel Ricciardo’s Red Bull car to pass him on the penultimate lap for the win, while Valtteri Bottas’s Williams would not have finished ahead of Hamilton if the Briton had started anywhere near the front, instead of in 20th, due to his qualifying crash. Those are the only two occasions, in 10 races, in which a Mercedes has been beaten in a race it has finished.
The pain of a non-finish has been maximised this year for a Mercedes driver, because almost certainly, it is a teammate who gains the most.
Red Bull and Williams are improving, but neither appears capable of beating a Mercedes car in a straight fight, meaning that in most races, the leading Mercedes driver can expect his teammate to finish directly behind him at the finish, gaining only seven points on his stable mate.
Hamilton had to win Malaysia, Bahrain, China and Spain just to make up the points he lost to Rosberg in Australia, and without Rosberg’s retirement at Silverstone, the deficit would be 46 points, a huge margin.
Championships have been decided before on the reliability of a driver’s car.
Ayrton Senna was faster than teammate Alain Prost at McLaren in 1989, out-qualifying him 14-2 and taking 13 pole positions during the season.
Yet Senna suffered four retirements that season because of mechanical problems compared to one for Prost, and it was the Frenchman who won the title that year.
This season there have been three mechanical problems for Hamilton to one for Rosberg.
In those events, Rosberg scored 68 points to Hamilton’s 40.
In the races in which both drivers were problem free, the Briton has a 14-point lead.
Barring one of them having a series of non-finishes, we seem destined to witness only our third championship decider in six years at the Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, which is the season finale on November 23. As long as they are within 50 points of each other, the title will be mathematically at stake, thanks to the double-points rule that was added this season.
The sweetener?
If there are fewer than 13 separating the Mercedes pair going into that race, it will be a winner-take-all scenario.
Hopefully the eight races preceding the action at Yas Marina Circuit, beginning on Sunday at the Hungaroring, will see no more car problems for either driver.
Then we truly can see who the faster man is, and who deserves to be crowned the 2014 champion in the UAE.
gcaygill@thenational.ae
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