Lewis Hamilton has detailed his perspective on Max Verstappen’s decisive overtake during the Hungarian Grand Prix, an incident that significantly impacted his race at the Hungaroring last Sunday. The move occurred on lap 16, shortly after Hamilton had executed an undercut on Verstappen.
Verstappen executed a late dive into Turn 1, regaining a position that Hamilton’s Ferrari team had initially secured through strategy. Hamilton later stated that his race trajectory went “downhill” following this manoeuvre.
The seven-time world champion explained that a backmarker obscured his view, preventing him from anticipating Verstappen’s approach. “I didn’t see Max coming unfortunately. Max came past me, and that kind of went downhill from there,” Hamilton commented.
Untelevised team radio communications from the race revealed Hamilton’s immediate reaction to Ferrari. After the overtake, he was heard apologising to his team.
‘Ah, I couldn’t see him coming, guys.’ ‘Sorry to lose that position, man.’
Verstappen, a four-time F1 champion, described the move as seizing an opportunity. His race engineer, Gianpiero Lambiase, acknowledged the manoeuvre as “quite special.”
The overtake followed an initial grid penalty for Hamilton, who started from fifth after receiving a three-place sanction for impeding Oscar Piastri during qualifying. Verstappen started from sixth but was promoted to fifth due to Hamilton’s penalty.
Hamilton’s race was further complicated by a five-second penalty for speeding in the pit lane. This dropped him from an on-track fourth position to fifth in the final classification, behind his Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc.
Red Bull Racing team boss Laurent Mekies credited the pit wall’s “spicy” strategy calls for contributing to Verstappen’s second-place finish. Verstappen himself noted that his car was “really, really oversteery at times.”
The Hungarian Grand Prix was won by Lando Norris for McLaren, with Verstappen securing second place. Kimi Antonelli completed the podium for Mercedes.
Hamilton reflected on his recent performances, acknowledging that the last three races, including Hungary, had been “pretty bad” from his perspective. He emphasised the need to avoid further penalties.
Despite the frustrations, Hamilton maintained that there were still many positives to extract from the first half of the current 2026 season.
