Hamilton after costly mistakes in Hungary: 'Frustrated, disappointed'
The Briton finished qualifying in P2, just 0.012 seconds behind pole position, but penalties in the race at the Hungaroring dropped him to fifth place.
The Briton finished qualifying in P2, just 0.012 seconds behind pole position, but penalties in the race at the Hungaroring dropped him to fifth place.
Lewis Hamilton finished the Hungarian Grand Prix in fifth place despite promising qualifying, admitting that his own mistakes have cost him in recent races. According to the Formula 1 website, the Ferrari driver took second place in qualifying, just 0.012 seconds behind Lando Norris's pole position, but a three-place grid penalty for impeding Oscar Piastri in the final phase of qualifying disrupted his plans for Sunday.
Due to the grid penalty, Hamilton approached the race in 'damage limitation' mode and started on soft tyres, which proved to be the best choice for Ferrari, while the team later struggled to extract performance from the hard tyres, according to Formula 1. Hamilton then engaged in an exciting battle with Max Verstappen, and after a pit stop during a virtual safety car period, it seemed he was getting back into the fight for the podium.
However, he had to let Kimi Antonelli through for third place to avoid a penalty for overtaking under VSC conditions. His efforts were further undone by a five-second penalty for speeding in the pit lane, and as teammate Charles Leclerc closed in during the final laps, Hamilton dropped to fifth place at the finish.
'Obviously frustrated, disappointed to end up with so little given that the car was good. The team did a great job, but ultimately these last few races have been costly due to mistakes on my part,' Hamilton stated to Formula 1.
Reflecting on the first half of the season, he added: 'It was OK. It hasn't been perfect on my side, so I need to work hard to try and figure out how I can be better in the second half of the season.'
Leclerc was equally downbeat, according to the same source, as Ferrari failed to capitalise on early potential at the Hungaroring. The Monégasque driver missed out on a third consecutive podium despite starting from the front row, losing several positions immediately after the lights went out.
Later he suggested switching to an alternative strategy, but in the end, like Hamilton, he made three stops and took fourth place only after Hamilton's penalty was applied. Explaining the start of the race, Leclerc said: 'I knew it was a critical moment of the race and unfortunately I did the right thing, but for some reason... We all set the car settings to a certain place for expected grip, and for some reason that we need to analyse, we overestimated the grip on the inside. We knew there was a difference between the right and left sides, but it was more than we expected,' reports Formula 1.
