If Lewis Hamilton does not head off into the winter break following the conclusion of the 2016 season - at the Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on November 27 - as world champion for a fourth time there will be plenty of regrets on his part.
Not all of the setbacks in the opening eight races of the season have been his fault, although some have.
Sunday's European Grand Prix at Azerbaijan was a big missed opportunity for Hamilton as he lost 15 points to his Mercedes-GP teammate Nico Rosberg, falling 24 points behind the German in the championship standings.
It was a great response for the victorious Rosberg, who led every lap at the Baku Street Circuit to claim his 19th career win, coming after he had only scored 16 points in the previous two races, both won by Hamilton.
But the opportunity for Rosberg to stamp his authority on the race was handed on a plate to him by Hamilton.
The Briton had been emphatically faster in the first three practice sessions, and on a track where Mercedes were comfortably the fastest car, a third win on the trot seemed within Hamilton's grasp.
See more from European Grand Prix:
. Report: 'I might not finish the race': Hamilton loses out to Rosberg at European GP in Azerbaijan
. Gallery: F1 championship leader Nico Rosberg gets to grip with faulty Mercedes engine set-up to win at Baku Street Circuit
. Formula One round-up: Lewis Hamilton fastest again in Baku ahead of Nico Rosberg
. Nico Rosberg on pole for inaugural European Grand Prix in Baku as Lewis Hamilton crashes
However, his crash in qualifying meant rather than starting on pole, he started 10th, with Rosberg having the football equivalent of "an open goal", starting at the front with his main rival on the back of the fifth row.
Rosberg still had to go out and win the race, and after holding onto the lead at the start, he paced himself to victory with little threat behind him.
Hamilton was clearly on a damage limitation exercise, and was very careful in the opening laps to avoid any incidents with other cars as he moved up the order.
Given that the anticipated accidents and crashes around the street circuit failed to materialise and there was no safety car periods, all Hamilton could aim for was second as Rosberg streaked away in clean air at the front.
He was up to fifth and pressurising Sergio Perez's Force India by the halfway point of the 51-lap race when he began to suffer loss of power in his engine.
Hamstrung by regulations that meant his race engineers could not tell him what the issue was, he began to lose up to a second a lap on his rivals.
After the race, Mercedes non-executive chairman Niki Lauda revealed Rosberg also had the same issue for a short while, and that the German had worked out which switches needed turning to get things back to full speed faster than Hamilton did.
Hamilton claimed post-race the problem sorted itself on its own in the closing laps, but by then Perez was 15 seconds down the road, so he settled for fifth.
Hamilton said of how to fix his engine problem: "It was like 16 different engine positions and in each of these there are 20 different engine settings. I had no idea, it was just low power."
If Hamilton had qualified where he should have done, in either first or second, he would have likely been out of sight with Rosberg when his problems began.
While his pace did slow he would have likely still got second, at the very least, given Sebastian Vettel's Ferrari was 16.6 seconds behind Rosberg at the end. So Hamilton has effectively lost eight points on championship leader Rosberg, having only scored 10 in Baku, when 18 should have been attainable, with 25 having gone to Rosberg for first place.
As it is Hamilton has given up some of the ground he had clawed back after his poor start to the campaign. A thrilled Rosberg said: "It has been an amazing day and an amazing weekend: it has been spectacular."
The momentum is back with him as he bids to win the title for the first time, and he will be confident of extending that even further in Austria in two weeks' time, given he has won at the Red Bull Ring the past two years.
It is now Hamilton's turn to try to find a reply and ensure that it is not his mistakes that hand the championship to his teammate.
Driver of the day
Sergio Perez (Force India)
Made amends for his crash in practice on Saturday which incurred the penalty that took away his front-row start. Made some good overtakes in the race and got his podium finish on merit by passing Kimi Raikkonen at the start of the final lap.
Disappointment of the day
Toro Rosso
The team were always going to struggle with the Ferrari 2015-spec engine on a power track, but the fact that both Daniil Kvyat and Carlos Sainz Jr failed to finish the race with mechanical problems meant that their fine efforts to be fighting in and around the lower top-10 places went to waste.
Key moment
Lewis Hamilton's engine setting problems mid-race ended his hopes of a charge to a podium finish, having got himself into fifth and being well set to push on, he instead had to settle for that spot.
Our verdict
Not quite the predicted carnage on the tight confines of the street circuit, which is a compliment to the high quality of the grid right now. It was a private party for Nico Rosberg at the front, but lots of close racing behind, with Ferrari the best of the rest.?
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Engine setting fiasco in Baku sees world champion Lewis Hamilton contribute to his own downfall
If Lewis Hamilton does not head off into the winter break following the conclusion of the 2016 season - the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on November 27 - as world champion for a fourth time there will be plenty of regrets, writes Graham Caygill.
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