Again, early in the primary, Trump was hovering towards the bottom, but every time a candidate dropped, Trump had a boost. Which tells me that when people's first pick dropped out, they went for option two. I was one of them. Yes, eventually he did come out on top, only after so many people dropped.
Again, you are wrong. All of the individual results are in that link.
Trump came in 2nd in Iowa, behind Cruz. Then he came in 1st in NH, SC, and NV. By the time they got to Nevada, half the field had dropped out, but 5 candidates were still left in the running (including Trump).
On Super Tuesday, there were 11 state primaries, of which Trump won 7, came in 2nd in 3, and 3rd in 1.
After that, Carson dropped out, leaving 4 candidates.
Of the next 9 states (I'm skipping PR, Guam, DC, and VI), Trump won 5, came in 2nd in 3, and 3rd in 1.
Then came Super Tuesday #2, which still had 4 candidates. Of those 5 states, Trump won 4 and came in 2nd in the other.
Then Rubio dropped out, leaving 3.
Of the next block of 7 states - this one's a bit muddled because of some state-level quirks, but say Trump won half of them.
Then on Apr 26, 5 states in the northeast/mid-atlantic voted. Trump won all of by at least a 2:1 margin. This was with 3 candidates left. And he dominated the rest from there.
Trump was ahead of everybody from the beginning. There were a couple weeks between the Super Tuesdays when it looked like Cruz might have a chance of catching up, but that was about it.