Hamilton could appreciate radio message: 'Feels very lonely sometimes'

During the Hungarian Grand Prix Mercedes had high hopes that Lewis Hamilton could still win. The Brit thought differently, but could appreciate the support of the team.

Because Lewis Hamilton was the only one who didn't choose to change to normal tyres at the restart of the Hungarian Grand Prix, the seven times World Champion had to drive into the pit lane one lap later and fell back to last place. A position he recovered from to finish third, later promoted to second.

At Mercedes, however, they still had a lot of hope. The team came over the radio to explain the situation to him and team boss Toto Wolff added that he could even win the race. At the time, Lewis Hamilton thought very differently. "I thought, I want to smoke what they are smoking," Hamilton told Motorsport-Total.com. Despite not believing in the encouragement, Lewis was able to appreciate the radio message.

Not just during the race

"When you're driving there, sometimes it can look lonely and sometimes you have such tunnel vision that it looks like ten laps, it's like a light year. It feels like you're travelling through time. It's a very strange experience and then you forget that there are people on the other side of the line. It's nice to be reminded they are there for you," the Mercedes driver told the press conference afterwards.

In the end Mercedes were not far off in predicting that Hamilton could still win the Hungarian Grand Prix. He eventually crossed the finish line in third place, but Fernando Alonso hindered his hunt for the win. The Spaniard managed to keep Hamilton's Mercedes behind him a significant amount of time, for which Max Verstappen is all too grateful to the Alpine driver.