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Hamilton accepts Bottas swap was a "risky" move
Lewis Hamilton says that handing third place back to Valtteri Bottas in Hungary was a risky move, and he could have used that as an excuse to hold station.
Adam Cooper
Edited: Jul 31, 2017, 5:10 PM
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Hamilton was aware that Max Verstappen was close behind his Mercedes teammate, and with backmarkers that he had just lapped also in the picture, there was an obvious concern that the Red Bull driver would also be able to sneak past behind Bottas.
In the end Hamilton was able to let the lapped cars back through before he made space for Bottas, and he was just able to get across the line safely in fourth place.
"I had a lot more pace than Valtteri, but at the time the radio wasn't working so I couldn't communicate that with the team," Hamilton explained. "So I was a bit stuck behind him, but I felt that I had the pace to fight with the Ferraris.
"Then the radio started working and they gave Valtteri a few laps to catch the Ferraris, which he wasn't able to do. Valtteri was great, and let me go. My thought process is if he lets me by and I can't pull away from him, and can't catch up, then I'd just let him back.
"Obviously I had a lot more pace and pulled away significantly, and had a seven-second gap to him at that point.
"It was difficult at the end to slow down… It was actually a little bit risky for me to slow down, particularly as I was around backmarkers, who were slowing down to let me by as well.
"And then I had to slow down and they were trying to overtake me, so it was really a little bit risky, to be honest. Also I knew there was a second gap between him and a Red Bull.
"I was thinking I could do the right thing and then finish fifth, it's going to really suck. Fortunately I managed it well, and managed to do what I felt was right."
Hamilton insisted that he would have no regrets over the summer about break about losing those three points to championship leader Sebastian Vettel.
"I don't think it would have been nagging away at me. I think if I'd kept my position, there were reasons to have stayed in position, because as I said I took risks to let him back past, which is unnecessary when you're fighting for a championship.
"In my mind I want to win the championship the right way. I don't know whether that will come back to bite me in the backside or not. But I said at the beginning of the year I want to win it in the right way, and I think it was the right way to do things."
Hamilton stressed that the lack of radio communications in the first part of the race was a major handicap.
When he came back online after his pitstop he told the team that he would have preferred to have stayed out longer.
"When you don't have the radio it's like driving blindfolded. You know your pace, they don't know really how fast you're pushing, how hard you're pushing, how much faster you can go, all your struggles, your weaknesses.
"You can't guide them on adjustments for the pitstop, you're not getting the feedback of times. We had the problem, there's nothing we can do about it. Obviously it wasn't planned. I think globally we tried our best.
"Of course after an event like this, an experience like this, we'll regroup and find a better way to handle it in the future I'm sure, so we do even better."
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