Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton has bemused a difficult fourth placed finish at 2023 Hungarian Grand Prix.
Hamilton started the race from pole for the first time since 2021 Saudi Arabian GP but immediately lost the lead to Max Verstappen, with McLaren’s Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris sneaking through who both had superior pace over the Brit who struggled for much of the race.
Explaining his start on medium tyres, Hamilton commented: “My initial getaway wasn’t the worst I’ve ever had but it wasn’t as good as the others. I ran wide and also got done by the McLarens. After that, I didn’t have the pace to keep up with those ahead.
“The balance of the car didn’t feel great in the first stint, and I had a lot of understeer, to snap oversteer, and problems with through-corner balance.”
Hamilton however was able to recover to fourth after he extended his hard tyre stint until the end of Lap 50 and overtook Piastri on Lap 57, but ultimately was unable to catch third-placed Sergio Perez.
The seven-time champion though left the Hungaroring full of positives as he added: “As the stints progressed, the car started to become more driveable, and the final stint was much better. The pace we had at the end was very strong and if we had had that throughout, we would have had a much better day. “Nevertheless, I’m going to take the positives from this weekend. It was an amazing effort from the Team to take pole position. We still have a lot of work to do to beat Red Bull in a Grand Prix, but we will keep pushing.”
Mercedes’ Team Principal, Toto Wolff meanwhile felt that the strategists had cost Hamilton a third-placed finish as he explained: “In the final stint, Lewis reeled in over 10 seconds to those ahead and we finished just 1.5 seconds shy of the podium.
“I think if we had executed our race slightly differently, we would have had that margin. We need to analyse and see what we could have done.”
Wolff however was irritated by how comfortable Verstappen and Red Bull were up front to win by over 33 seconds from Norris, as he quipped: “Having said that, Max looked tranquil up front and we’re not here to race for second-best. Getting to the front is the objective and of course, that was far off today.”
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