Lewis Hamilton has admitted he needs to cut out recent mistakes as his disappointing Hungarian Grand Prix is the kind of race “where championships are lost” by the end of the season.
Budapest seemed like a golden opportunity for Ferrari to make a dent into Kimi Antonelli and Mercedes in the drivers’ and constructors’ championships.
As the Hungaroring circuit tends to reward chassis design over outright power Ferrari came into the weekend as strong favourites.
Despite strong pace in practice, Hamilton was pipped to pole position by McLaren’s Lando Norris, before he then finished in fifth behind teammate Charles Leclerc.
Antonelli finished third, extending his lead over Hamilton to 50 points going into the summer break.
“I wouldn’t say I go into the break on a positive,” Hamilton told DAZN. “I’ve had three bad races. Overall, we’re there or thereabouts, in the fight. Races like this are where championships are lost.”
Since his maiden Ferrari victory at the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix in June, Hamilton has been given four penalties across the last three race weekends, including two in Budapest -- he dropped from second to fifth on the grid for impeding Oscar Piastri at the end of qualifying, and then dropped from fourth to fifth at the end of the race for a pit lane speeding penalty.
“I have to accept that I’ve made mistakes in the last three races that have cost me a lot of points,” Hamilton added. “I just need to take this time to reflect and sort my head out so I can come back and be a bit stronger.”
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Hamilton’s former boss, Mercedes’ Toto Wolff, was surprised to see Ferrari falter so drastically.
“Lewis was the one to win this race Saturday morning, [and] all of Friday, and we come out of this with a few points gained,” he said post-race.
Mercedes could have made Ferrari pay even more -- Antonelli dropped from fourth to seventh on the grid for a penalty for not slowing at yellow flags during qualifying, while George Russell dropped to the back of the field at the start when his car triggered anti-stall.
Antonelli had to settle for third behind Max Verstappen, who later admitted he was “shocked” he was able to finish second in his Red Bull.
While Wolff felt Mercedes could have done better, the context of Ferrari’s bad weekend made him re-evaluate how it went.
“That’s great,” he said on finishing ahead of Ferrari. “But I’ve been always a miserable guy with the glasses half empty. We could have had P2 today, or should have had P2, and maybe in balance [with] he got the penalties overall. Maybe on Kimi’s side we need to go home and say that’s okay in terms of the points.”
