Lewis Hamilton upbeat on title bid despite one other penalty

Lewis Hamilton said he remained optimistic about his hopes of winning a record eighth drivers world championship this 12 months despite collecting one other penalty in Sunday’s Hungarian Grand Prix.

The seven-time champion Ferrari driver, who finished classified fifth having finished fourth on the road before taking a five-second penalty, said he needed to “work hard not to offer the stewards any more opportunities to offer me penalties”.

He was adjudged to have exceeded the pit lane speed limit by 0.1 kph during a stop that he said, after the race, was unnecessary and a mistake by the team.

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“I definitely don’t think we must always have taken the last stop,” he said, referring to Ferrari’s decision to call him in during a late Virtual Safety Automobile intervention to swap from hard tyres to softs for the ultimate laps.

“The decision got here just before the pit entry and I didn’t have time to debate it. You’ve got to trust the choice that’s been taken, but in hindsight my tyres were totally wonderful.

“I probably would have lost out to Max (Verstappen, who finished second), but I believe I could have kept third at the very least. It just opened the door to getting that penalty at the tip.”

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Asked if he was upbeat for the second half of the season, as he seeks to shut a 50-point deficit behind championship leader Kimi Antonelli of Mercedes, Hamilton was positive.

“I definitely am,” he said. “I’m massively grateful to the team because they’ve done a very great job in the primary half.

“I believe the last three races from me haven’t been great, with a number of mistakes. I’ve had quite a lot of penalties… I’ve set to work hard hard not to offer them any more opportunities for penalties.”