Lewis Hamilton emerged from shadows to claim Hungarian GP podium - Toto Wolff

Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen in Hungary — Photo: © LAT Images

Hungarian Grand Prix

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Hamilton emerged from shadows to claim Hungarian GP podium - Wolff

Hamilton finished second from seventh on the grid

Ewan Gale

Sunday 31 July 2022 21:00 Updated: 08:09

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Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff has praised Lewis Hamilton for an "unbelievable" performance from the shadows at the Hungarian Grand Prix.

The seven-time F1 champion started seventh after a DRS issue in qualifying but extended his stints during the race and utilised fresh soft tyres to charge from fourth to second in the closing stages.

Assessing the race, Wolff first hailed George Russell for his efforts after the younger Briton slipped from pole to third.

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"George had a great qualifying session with pole and drove a super solid race," Wolff told Sky Sports F1.

"But he was always in that fight and therefore you are utilising the tyres, you are leaning on it a lot and he ran out of tyres a bit on the second stint."

On Hamilton, Wolff added: "Where Lewis came from was unbelievable.

"He was a little bit in the shadow, nobody really looked at where he came from and then suddenly he was banging in times with the leaders and I think in qualifying, if the DRS hadn't failed in qualifying, who knows?

"I think we would have had a fun fight for the win."

Verstappen and Leclerc "ahead of everybody"

Russell had managed to hold off Carlos Sainz's charge at the beginning of the race but was powerless to resist the attacks from Charles Leclerc and Max Verstappen when they came calling for position.

"You need to acknowledge that Max in the Red Bull is, at the moment, and maybe Charles in the Ferrari, are ahead of everybody else," conceded Wolff.

"I think with Lewis in Budapest, that is a success story and I think we lost the race with him yesterday."