Hamilton: I need to be ahead of Bottas 'every single time'

Lewis Hamilton has conceded that he will no longer allow Valtteri Bottas to get ahead of him in Grand Prix races and came to this conclusion after the Hungary GP in which the duo were unable to get the better of the Ferrari drivers up top after the Finn started ahead of his team-mate via qualifying.

Bottas bettered Hamilton in qualifying, but the latter was allowed to overtake to try and take down the Ferraris in the top two positions. After this did not happen, Hamilton allowed his team-mate back in to claim third and a podium position.

The Brit has admitted that, although this decision created more harmony in the Mercedes team between him and Bottas, he would now always aim to be ahead to meet the driver hierarchy.

"We did a great thing for the team that had a positive ripple effect," he said during FIA prize-giving today.

"It was a really positive thing that I let Valtteri back past and finished fourth.

"I went into that break and mentally I was like 'I don't ever want to be in a position, or even put the team in a position where they have to decide whether we're first or second'.

"I was like 'from now on, I need to be ahead every single time' and then there'll never, ever be the question or whether Valtteri should let Lewis past and those kind of things.

"I made sure that I studied what I'd done at the beginning of the year and applied everything I'd learned to the second part."

Hamilton went on to discuss the atmosphere within the team when he is dueling with a team-mate, like he did with Nico Rosberg in 2016, compared to when everyone in Mercedes was working together against Ferrari, like this past campaign.

"We lost a member of the team last year, obviously retiring, and I really wanted to make sure I brought a new positive, restructured me to the team and into this season and to really lead the team to the world championship, which I did," he continued.

"It was just a much more enjoyable battle. When you're fighting against another team, the energy within the team is so much different.

"When you meet all the engineers and you go round and see what they're working on and how they're doing, they ask you questions and they're like 'we want to beat Ferrari, we want to be the best we can be.'

"It's different to the previous year when you may have had an advantage and it was just between the drivers. Then it was like 'we don't really care who wins'.

"It's a different vibe. When their confidence is in you that you can potentially drive them to beat the other team, there's a different engagement from everyone. There was just a unified powerful force towards one goal."