Hamilton labels the Hungarian Grand Prix as one of his favourites
After winning the Hungarian Grand Prix in dominant fashion, Lewis Hamilton has titled the 70-lap race one of his favourites, stating that the conditions were challenging.
Mercedes continued where it has left off in Austria just a week ago. The Anglo-German outfit’s car has shown never-seen dominance in the first three rounds of the delayed 2020 season with Sebastian Vettel claiming that Mercedes was „not on another planet, but in another universe.”
In today’s race at the Hungaroring, Hamilton led from start to finish and lapped every car up to the fifth-placed Alexander Albon. The Briton’s fastest lap with which he posted a new race record at the Hungarian circuit was 2.3 seconds faster than fastest non-Mercedes driver Lance Stroll.
Hamilton has acknowledged that his car was unbeatable today, but he stated that he had to take risks to set the fastest lap of the race at the end of the race to gain an extra championship point.
„What an incredible race. Honestly, that was one of my favourites that I’ve raced, even though I was on my own for the majority, it’s a very different kind of challenge and I was pushing hard out there – particularly for the fastest lap at the end.”
„I want to say a huge congratulations to everyone back home at the factory in Brackley and at HPP in Brixworth, they’ve done such a fantastic job developing and improving for this year and this team just continues to amaze me. I love working with them and I’m grateful to be able to perform for them on weekends like this. We had great pace today, brilliant pit stops, a fantastic strategy and then, as I was managing those Mediums for a long, long time, at the end it was the perfect time to get on fresh tyres and take that extra point for fastest lap.”
The six-time world champion is looking forward to his home grand prix at Silverstone, albeit he knows the atmosphere will not be the same without the passionate British fans.
„Everything has just been on point throughout the weekend, so we need to try and keep it up. I can’t wait for Silverstone now, although I’ll miss the energy the fans bring, so I hope I can perform for them there as I know they’ll be watching from home."
Valtteri Bottas’ race did not start well after the eight-time race winner had a slow get-away from his grid position, losing several positions. After the start, the Nastola-born driver’s race concentrated on making up as many places as he could in order to limit the damage in the championship.
„That was a tough race. Obviously starting second on the grid, you aim to win the race, but I had a bad start and lost a few positions. I reacted to a light on my dash that went off, instead of the start lights, which then meant the car went into anti-stall and I had to do the start again.”
With his teammate winning the race, Bottas lost the championship lead, trailing now Hamilton by 5 points. The Finn want to learn from this weekend before the action continues at Silverstone in a fortnight’s time.
„I lost some ground there and that made the race very difficult for me, as I was fighting right to the very end. It was pretty close with Max and I think the gamble to pit late on was definitely worth taking, as it gave me the difference in tyre life. But it didn’t quite pay off today. Still, I scored a good haul of points and there’s plenty to learn from this weekend, heading to Silverstone.
