Lewis Hamilton is “not really sure why” Ferrari made the strategy call that made him relinquish the podium at the Formula 1 Hungarian Grand Prix.
Hamilton came into the 70-lap race off the back of a three-place grid drop for impeding Oscar Piastri during qualifying on Saturday.
Therefore, despite the second-fastest lap of Q3, the Ferrari driver was started the Hungarian GP from fifth.
That said, the Briton was pretty handy behind the wheel of the SF-26 as he battled all race-long with Max Verstappen for the final podium place.
“Yeah, I had a good start, relatively easy start,” he told media including Motorsport Week.
“Then I had a really good pace in the first half of the race. Then I undercut Max, which is a positive.
“He passed me on the back markers I think it was. I didn’t see Max coming, which was unfortunate.
“He came past me and that kind of went downhill.”
Lewis Hamilton rues Ferrari’s F1 Hungarian GP strategy call
It all came good again for Hamilton when Oscar Piastri, who was leading the majority of the race on Sunday, bowed out after the gearbox on his MCL40 gave up.
The Briton got himself as high as P2 when the VSC came out but was asked to dive into the pits for a fresh set of Soft tyres by the Ferrari pit wall.
Not only did this mean Verstappen jumped him on the road, but Hamilton was then obliged to fight Andrea Kimi Antonelli on track, for position, that allowed the Red Bull driver to eke out a gap.
To make matters worse, Hamilton was judged by the stewards to have speeded in the pit lane on his stop, earning him a five second time penalty and all but ending any chances to feature on the podium.
“It was pretty bad, pretty frustrating. It is what it is,” he added.
“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 evade it.
“I would never have stopped if I had given up track position. I thought that I would have lost out to Max probably because of fresher tyres.
“I may have been able to hold on to P2, he was catching me. Most likely it would have been P3. It doesn’t make much sense.
“I should have just stayed out. I need to go and see why the team pulled me in.”
Hamilton now heads into the summer break with four penalties in three rounds. Having said that, the only silver lining for the Ferrari driver would be that 11 rounds in, he is still the closest title challenger to Antonelli with a 50-point deficit.
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