Lewis Hamilton is demanding an explanation from Ferrari after a costly strategy call derailed his Hungarian Grand Prix and deepened the damage to his pursuit of a record eighth world title.
Hamilton was running second when Ferrari called him in for fresh tyres late in the race. He emerged behind Max Verstappen and championship leader Kimi Antonelli, who held on for second and third. A five-second penalty for exceeding the 80kph pit lane speed limit by 0.01kph then dropped him behind team-mate Charles Leclerc, leaving him fifth at the flag.
Lando Norris won the race and was all smiles, while Hamilton counted the cost of a weekend that produced less than it promised. He now sits 50 points behind Antonelli in the standings.
Hamilton said he did not think the team should have made the stop. He added that he received the call right at the pit lane entry and had no time to debate it, and that he would never have stopped had he known it meant surrendering track position. He said the team probably would have lost out to Verstappen regardless, but that he might have held on for second or at worst third, and that they had lost a significant number of points by pitting. Hamilton said he needed to understand why the team brought him in, noting he had the pace to compete for the top two or three positions.
The Hungary result extended a difficult run for Hamilton. The penalty was his fourth on successive weekends. He acknowledged a false start at Silverstone was his own fault and accepted responsibility for blocking Oscar Piastri in qualifying on Saturday, calling it a communication error. He was more aggrieved by a penalty at Spa, noting that the driver involved described it as a racing incident.
Hamilton said the last three races had been pretty bad from his side but that there were still positives to take, and that he would work hard to reset.
