Lewis Hamilton pledged to seek answers from his Ferrari team after another missed opportunity in his spluttering quest for a record eighth world title.
The British driver fell 50 points behind championship leader Kimi Antonelli in Hungary by finishing fifth following a curious late strategy call that cost him a possible second place behind race winner Lando Norris.
While Norris was bathed in smiles after notching his first victory of his title defence, Hamilton was cursing his luck on a weekend that promised so much more than it delivered.
‘Yes, it was a missed opportunity,’ admitted Hamilton.
His weekend was compromised when he failed to land pole that looked to be at his mercy on a favourite track suited to his car and was then demoted down the field for impeding McLaren’s Oscar Piastri in qualifying.
Starting fifth, he had come through to second place when Piastri’s car broke down. He was called in by Ferrari for a new set of tyres and lost track position to Max Verstappen and Antonelli, who held on for second and third places.
Lewis Hamilton is seeking answers from Ferrari after a strategy call cost him in Hungary
Hamilton was then handed a five-second penalty for speeding in the pit lane – 0.01kph over the mandated 80kph (50mph) – as he charged back on the track after his late stop. That dropped him a further place behind team-mate Charles Leclerc.
‘I definitely don’t think we should have taken a stop,’ said Hamilton, as the strategy blunder cost him a likely 11 points in relation to Antonelli.
‘I got the call right at the pit-lane entry and I did not have time to debate it.
‘I would never have stopped if it meant I would give up track position.
‘We probably would have lost out to Max because he was on fresher tyres. But I may have been able to hold on to second, but it most likely would have been third. We have lost a whole bunch of points. We should have stayed out. I need to see why the team pulled me in.
‘I had the pace to compete at least for the top two, top three.’
Hamilton’s penalty yesterday was his fourth on successive weekends dating back to his false start at Silverstone. He was then harshly adjudged to have caused an accident with George Russell at Spa prior to his double punishments here at the Hungaroring.
Was he aggrieved by the stewards?
Hamilton was called in to change his tyres but failed to regain the places he lost in doing so
‘No,’ he said. ‘The last three races have been pretty bad from my side. Silverstone was my fault at the start.
‘At the last race, even the driver I collided with said it was a racing incident and they gave me a penalty. That was not needed. And that’s cost me a lot of points.
‘Saturday (blocking Piastri) was unfortunate. I take responsibility. I should have looked in my mirrors. But I got the information when he was behind me. It was a communication error.
‘I will work hard to come back, to reset. There are still lots of positives to take.’
