Lewis Hamilton hated ‘every lap’ of Hungarian GP as Brit savages Mercedes car

Lewis Hamilton has admitted that he hated every single minute of the Hungarian Grand Prix after losing three positions on the opening lap. The Brit started from pole but was forced to settle for a disappointing fourth-placed finish in Budapest, with Max Verstappen winning his seventh race in a row as he closes in on his third Drivers’ Championship title.

Hamilton grew increasingly frustrated with his lack of pace as he struggled to chase down the drivers ahead of him, with the 38-year-old left baffled after storming to pole position on merit in Saturday’s qualifying session. He went on to reveal after the race that he did not enjoy driving a single lap of the Hungaroring on Sunday after his nightmare start wrecked any hopes of winning his first race in over 18 months.

“I fell back,” said Hamilton while discussing the early stages of the 70-lap contest. “I hit the target that I was supposed to go to but just had wheelspin, then I was under attack all the way to Turn Two. At the end of the day it doesn’t really matter, I didn’t have the pace to hold onto those guys [Red Bull and McLaren] anyway.

“Honestly, there wasn’t a lap that I enjoyed driving the car today, because the car didn’t feel good today at all. For some reason we just generally lacked pace. It did get better towards the end but still it was pretty tough. I knew I wouldn’t be able to catch Sergio [Perez] or at least [get past] a Red Bull, because they’re obviously so quick.

“You live and you learn. Yesterday was a good day and we’ll take the positives, but we’re a long shot away from winning at the moment.”

Hamilton managed to unlock some additional pace during the final few laps and looked to be in with an outside chance of battling Sergio Perez for a third-placed finish at one stage, but he ultimately came up short despite reducing the gap to just 1.5 seconds at the chequered flag.

“As we got through the next couple of stints, the car started to become much more drivable, and then the last stint obviously was much better,” added Hamilton as he reflected on the end of the Hungarian Grand Prix. “If we had the pace we had at the end [earlier on] we would have been a little bit better I think through the day.

“I’m going to take the positives from yesterday. It was an amazing effort from the team to get to where we were and to beat everybody in qualifying was really spectacular for us.”

On the other side of the Mercedes garage, George Russell managed to battle back from 18th on the grid to claim an impressive sixth-placed finish, beating the Ferrari duo of Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc in the process. The latter ended up crossing the line ahead of Russell but had a five-second time penalty to contend with, allowing the Mercedes driver to leapfrog him in the final race classification.

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