Hamilton: Collision with Max – racing incident

Lewis Hamilton finished third in Hungary and climbed to the Formula 1 podium for the 200th time in his career. In the final laps, the seven-time world champion withstood attacks from Max Verstappen, one of which ended in a collision. Lewis called the incident a racing incident.

His teammate George Russell finished eighth and was awarded an extra point for the fastest lap of the race.

Lewis hamilton (3rd): “A big congratulations to McLaren for the winning double. They are my old family, so I am very happy to see the team back at the top.

Speaking about us, the team did a great job and continues to improve the car. Ultimately, we didn’t have the pace today to challenge McLaren and Red Bull, but we were able to hold on early in the race, even though it was very, very difficult, and still keep the tyre wear under control.

In the end I had a tight and exciting battle with Max, but that’s racing. It doesn’t make me nervous. When I saw him closing the gap in the last corners I just laughed to myself because I couldn’t help it.

I saw Max approaching, and he could have braked much later than me, but then he took the inside radius, I stayed on my trajectory, he touched the steering wheel and flew up. I consider this a racing incident.

Congratulations to Oscar – a great win. He has been doing a fantastic job since his debut in Formula 1, that has to be said. He is very stable, so the win was a matter of time. It is a great day for him and he had great pace from the start. I am very happy for Oscar and his family.”

George Russell (8th): “Of course the problems started in qualifying and I had reasons to be frustrated, but I had to forget all that. We thought our target for today was at least seventh place, but Sergio Perez was driving at the pace you would expect from a Red Bull driver, and not as he has been performing lately.

This made our task a little more difficult, but we still had a good race, even though I started from the back. But we know the capabilities of our car, and in two of the last five races we won, and in the rest we were second or third. But today we have to congratulate McLaren for its double success, and Oscar Piastri for his first victory!

When we talk about the upcoming race in Spa, we have to remember that when the temperature is high we start to have problems, and when it is cool we feel more comfortable. So I hope that Spa will have typical Belgian weather and that the sky will be cloudy.”