Online Reporter
Lewis Hamilton said he remained optimistic about his hopes of winning a record eighth drivers world championship this year despite collecting another penalty in Sunday’s Hungarian Grand Prix.
The seven-time champion Ferrari driver, who finished classified fifth having finished fourth on the road before taking a five-second penalty, said he had to “work hard not to give the stewards any more opportunities to give me penalties”.
He was adjudged to have exceeded the pit lane speed limit by 0.1 kph during a stop that he said, after the race, was unnecessary and a mistake by the team.
“I definitely don’t think we should have taken the last stop,” he said, referring to Ferrari’s decision to call him in during a late Virtual Safety Car intervention to swap from hard tyres to softs for the final laps. The call came just before the pit entry and I didn’t have time to debate it. You’ve got to trust the decision that’s been taken, but in hindsight my tyres were totally fine.
“I probably would have lost out to Max (Verstappen, who finished second), but I think I could have kept third at least. It just opened the door to getting that penalty at the end.”
Asked if he was upbeat for the second half of the season, as he seeks to close a 50-point deficit behind championship leader Kimi Antonelli of Mercedes, Hamilton was positive.
“I definitely am,” he said. “I’m massively grateful to the team because they’ve done a really great job in the first half.
“I think the last three races from me have not been great, with lots of mistakes. I’ve had a lot of penalties… I’ve got to work hard hard not to give them any more opportunities for penalties.”
Meanwhile, Max Verstappen continued to complain about his car and put pressure on his Red Bull team on Sunday despite securing his second consecutive podium finish and a third in four races. The four-time champion came in second behind McLaren’s world champion Lando Norris in the Hungarian Grand Prix while grumbling about his car’s gearbox and aerodynamic performance.
He had earlier described the car as “undriveable” a comment repeated by teammate Isack Hadjar who finished sixth.
“I didn’t expect to be on the podium today, but we worked hard for it,” said Verstappen. “The start was decent, you know, to get through turns one and two, and then after the first stop to get back ahead of Lewis, under braking into Turn One. —SuperSport
