Lewis Hamilton said that the victory at Hungary Grand Prix was paved through “big car change” brought by his Mercedes Formula 1 team.
Friday in Budapest, was not encouraging for Mercedes where both cars were off pace. Hamilton was able to conclude the day at fifth and sixth position.
Sebastian Vettel remained favorite for the Hungarian track with revived Ferrari, as Mercedes design philosophy contrasted with the track. But Hamilton took the opportunity of wet track and cordoned off the pole position. He led the race from the pole at Hungaian GP.
Hamilton said: “From Friday to Saturday I made a big car change.
“I made a big change in FP1, because I was uncomfortable with the balance.
“It’s difficult to make change in FP1 because you have to wait for the track to come to you rather than chase the set-up.
“I straight away made a big change but by the time I got to the end of FP2 I realised it wasn’t the right direction so I had to pull back and go another way.
“We had a bit of running in P3 but the car still wasn’t perfect and then it rained.
“I didn’t make any changes [before qualifying] but I knew that Valtteri [Bottas] had had good P2 running and we weren’t too far off in the direction that we ended.
“All the learning you do on a Friday, it wasn’t perfect, the way you drive, the way you use the tyres, then you come back on Sunday and you have to bring your A-game.
“Friday is not usually the day I bring my A-game.”
One Stop Strategy
Hamilton managed to do stretch ultrasoft tyres life to 25 laps, where his team mate Bottas only managed to run 15.
The strategy to stretch the laps on the same tires helped the team to make single pit stop, which kept Hamilton in lead and eventually led to his victory.
“The ultrasoft lasted a lot better than I thought,” Hamilton admitted. “I did struggle in FP2 but I was on a different set-up.
“I struggled at the beginning [of the stint of soft tyres] and then we got through some traffic and I moved a lot of switches around and was able to balance the car.
“After that I was able to do some decent times and pull the gap. I knew I’d need to pull the gap while they were still behind Valtteri.
“The strategy that Valtteri was on, it was highly unlikely that he was going to make it last.
“We knew that it [being on different tyre strategies] would also make it very difficult to win, even for me.
“I definitely don’t think the team expected me to be able to eke out my first stint.”
