Lewis Hamilton spurred by one-point title agony in fastest-lap quest

Lewis Hamilton

Hamilton spurred by one-point title agony in fastest-lap quest

Hamilton set a Hungaroring race lap record on final lap

Ian Parkes

Monday 20 July 2020 16:21

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Lewis Hamilton has revealed to being motivated by the pain of his 2007 Formula 1 world title defeat as the reason behind his bid to secure the fastest lap in Sunday's Hungarian Grand Prix.

Over the closing stages of the race at the Hungaroring, and with Hamilton cantering to victory, he could be heard debating with his Mercedes team the merits of strapping on a fresh set of tyres.

Hamilton was initially dissuaded from taking on the soft compound for the final 10 laps for fear of them quickly graining and him potentially falling into the clutches of second-placed Max Verstappen.

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Instead, the move was made with four laps remaining, leading to Hamilton setting the fastest lap on 68 - so taking the point for the quickest lap of the race off team-mate Valtteri Bottas - and again on the last of the 70, just for good measure.

Explaining his rationale, Hamilton said: "Ultimately, I knew that Valtteri had the fastest lap, and he only had the fastest lap because he had done two stops. He obviously had done a good job but he had the extra stop.

"We're in a period of time where I know what's it's like to lose the world championship by one point [in '07 to Kimi Raikkonen], so I'm not giving up anything unless I have to.

"We've experienced it before, and I know from experience how to manage it and not take too much risk that I lose everything.

"I trust the team implicitly in terms of their calls, and the pit stop crew, and I think it was the right choice at the end of the day."

As to his quickest lap at the death, which proved to be a new race lap record, Hamilton added: "I did two [fastest laps] because on the first I got traffic, and in my mind, I didn't know if anyone else had stopped and if they were going to jump that time.

"It wasn't a clean lap so I had to do it again just in case it got nipped because I would not have been happy if I'd crossed the line and I'd lost that one point because I hadn't pushed enough."

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