Lewis Hamilton insists he made the right call in ignoring team orders asking him to let team-mate Nico Rosberg through during the Hungarian Grand Prix
The Briton was repeatedly told to “move over” by his race engineer as Rosberg continued to question why he wasn’t doing so over the radio.
In response, Hamilton said: “I’m not slowing down for Nico. If he gets close enough to overtake, he can overtake”.
Hamilton eventually finished third, just half a second ahead of Rosberg. He later admitted he was shocked by the team orders.
“If I’d let him past he would have beaten me,” Hamilton said. “Also, I would have lost points to Nico. Obviously I was in the same race as him, just because he had one more stop than me doesn’t mean I wasn’t in the same race. He would have had the opportunity to pull away and then I thought he would come back and overtake me.
“I was very, very shocked that the team would ask me to do that. He didn’t get close enough to overtake, I was not going to lift off and lose ground to Fernando [Alonso] or Daniel [Ricciardo], so it was a bit strange.”
He says ultimately he made the right call in choosing to ignore the request and said the matter will be taken up with the team during the post-race debrief.
“I’m not quite sure what the situation was there. I’ll go and talk to everyone and give them the benefit of the doubt, I’m sure it was perhaps for the right reasons. Ultimately I would have lost points today so it definitely feels strange, but I think it was the right decision for myself.”
