Hamilton questions Ferrari's strategy call: 'I wouldn't have done that'

Following a late Virtual Safety Car, Ferrari decided to pit both Hamilton and Charles Leclerc at the Hungarian Grand Prix. Hamilton ultimately emerged from the pit lane just behind Kimi Antonelli at the white line, meaning he had to concede the position.

Moreover, because he exceeded the pit lane speed limit by 0.1 km/h during that pit stop, Hamilton was handed a five-second time penalty by the stewards, relegating him to fifth place.

After the race, Hamilton did not agree with his team's decision to pit. Speaking to GPblog, among others, he said: "I'm not really sure why we stopped at the end. I got the call right before the pit lane entry, so I didn't have time to debate it. I would never have stopped if it meant that I was losing, giving up track position. So I thought that that would not be the case."

The seven-time world champion added: "I think we probably would have lost out to Max, probably he was on fresher tyres. I would imagine maybe in that last stint, but I think we may have been able to hold on to P2, he was catching me, but most likely it would have been P3, and then much better. But instead, I lost a bunch of points."

Entering the summer break, Hamilton remains second in the drivers' standings. He currently trails Kimi Antonelli by 50 points.

Hamilton also admitted that he did not see Max Verstappen coming, after the Dutchman produced an overtake of the season contender on the Ferrari driver at the Hungarian Grand Prix.

He explained: "We undercut Max which is a positive. When we were passing one of the backmarkers I didn't see Max coming unfortunately. Max came past me and that kind of went downhill from there."

Giving his overall verdict on the day, he added: "It was pretty bad, pretty frustrating. It is what it is and there's lots of positives to take from this first half of the season."