Valtteri Bottas has thanked his Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton for “keeping the promise” and swapping places on the final lap of the Hungarian Grand Prix.
The Finnish driver qualified ahead of Hamilton in third and spent the first half of the race ahead of him, before starting to struggle a little.
Hamilton had stronger pace and Mercedes swapped its two drivers over, with the three-time F1 champion promising to give the place back to Bottas if he could not pass the Ferraris.
He closed in on Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen, while Bottas struggled with backmarkers, but could not get close enough to mount a challenge.
On the final lap, Hamilton backed off – despite Max Verstappen chasing them down – and allowed Bottas through to third.
“Thanks to Lewis for keeping the promise and letting me by in the end because I gave him the shot to try and get past the Ferraris," he said.
“It's a shame, we had good pace in the end but with the starting position, couldn't get any better.”
Bottas said he felt he was “unlucky” with backmarkers and the result was damage limitation:
“Ferrari seemed to be really strong on the supersoft but then the issue of Sebastian [Vettel] made it more interesting.
“We were struggling with radio communications, I don’t know what the issue was, but anyway, I was trying to get close enough to Kimi to attack.
“But, there was no opportunity. Then, we swapped as a team, Lewis [Hamilton] tried as well. When he was trying [to pass Raikkonen], I struggled with the backmarkers.
“I felt I was really unlucky with a few of the guys, losing time and losing the rhythm. The team promised that we did the swap, we swapped, the team kept the promise, which I'm really happy about, and really thankful.
"I don't think every team-mate would have swapped back if you're fighting for podium places, nice for the team, but unfortunately [it was a race of] damage limitation."
“Thanks to Lewis as well, I don’t think every team-mate would have swapped back if you’re fighting for a podium. It was nice for the team.”
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