Hamilton explains why he defied Mercedes in France

Lewis Hamilton said his refusal to accept anything other than the very best led him to ignore Mercedes' guidance during the French Grand Prix and push for the fastest lap right at the end of Sunday's dominant victory at Circuit Paul Ricard.

Hamilton won the race by 18 seconds from Valtteri Bottas and tried to take the extra point for fastest lap on his final tour of Paul Ricard, despite being informed that Sebastian Vettel had pitted from fifth to fit soft tyres and go for it.

With hards fitted, Hamilton did indeed set a new fastest lap, and Vettel was only able to top it by two hundredths, later claiming a battery issue had hampered him slightly.

Speaking to race engineer Pete Bonington after the race, Hamilton said: "You can never have a defeatist mind," to which Bonington replied that that team would learn from the moment.

Commenting on it post-race, Hamilton said: "I think you should never give up and never be complacent and just think no it's not possible.

"An extra point was available. Naturally the guys can't know how I feel in the car, but I felt like I had a little bit left in the tyres, and there was only one more lap.

"I was, 'I'm going to go for it man, let's go for it.' Even during the lap they were saying, 'Don't worry, he's got new tyres, there no way you're going to beat him.' As crazy as a driver is, I thought maybe I could get there.

"I didn't realise I'd be so close – there's things I could have done to make it happen. I don't think he had a perfect lap, I don't think he had full deployment, or something like that. I think that's a learning for us, never take things for granted and continue to push."

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