© LAT Images for Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix Ltd
After scoring another fantastic pole position Lewis Hamilton was accused by Red Bull that he drove a slow out lap on purpose to disturb Max Verstappen’s warm-up.
After taking an amazing P1 in Hungarian Grand Prix Qualifying, ahead of Valtteri Bottas and Max Verstappen, Lewis Hamilton was happy with the lap he managed to pull off.
“The first run [in Q3], the lap really felt beautiful, it was a real build up,” said the Briton.
“A lot of qualifying sessions you sometimes get your best lap in Q1 or Q2 or something like that, and it never goes always to plan. But today I got the best lap in Q3, run one, so really happy with it.”
With his eighth pole position at the Hungaroring, Lewis equals the record for most poles at a single venue with himself at Melbourne, Michael Schumacher at Suzuka and Ayrton Senna at Imola.
After the session Lewis was accused by Red Bull that he drove slowly in his last out lap on purpose, to disturb Max Verstappen’s tyre warm-up.
Romain Grosjean also questioned Lewis’ intentions in a tweet saying: “If that was made on purpose, it’s not pretty”.
However, Lewis replied to these insinuations in a pretty firm manner.
“It’s so silly. Everyone was going slow, do you not watch everybody else? I don’t understand.
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“Do you think I could have gone quicker and then been closer to Valtteri? Everyone was doing a slow out lap, it was no different to any other lap.
“Of course, each time we go out, we’re trying to prepare the tyres and keep them cooler, because they get so hot throughout the lap.
“So I wasn’t playing any tactics. I don’t need to play no tactics, man. I know what I’m doing in the car and I’m fast enough, I don’t need to add tactics.
“Those that are making the comments really don’t clearly know anything about the job we’re doing here. Which is probably why they’re not driving.”
Now Lewis is setting his sights on the race tomorrow and his possible 100th race win.
“This is not even half the job. Tomorrow’s a long race, we don’t know what weather is around us. It’s such a challenging circuit, and the whole top four will not be easy to beat.
“We’ve got a long run down to Turn 1, so it’s going to be challenging tomorrow, especially if the temperatures are like this.
“So should be an exciting race,” concluded the seven-time champion.
