Hamilton: Unnecessary pit stop 'opened door' to latest penalty

Lewis Hamilton feels an unnecessary third pit stop in the Hungarian Grand Prix "opened the door" to his latest costly penalty - although said the sanction for pit-lane speeding was on him having made "lots of mistakes" in recent races.

Hamilton had just inherited second place in the race from Oscar Piastri when the Virtual Safety Car was initiated on lap 56 due to the McLaren having stopped at the side of the track with a technical problem.

Ferrari chose to pit Hamilton for a third time as the cars on track ran at a controlled speed but he lost track position to Red Bull's Max Verstappen, who did not pit, and then ultimately had to drop behind Mercedes title rival Kimi Antonelli too once re-joining the track, dropping him to fourth for the closing laps.

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To compound matters, Hamilton was then placed under investigation for pit-lane speeding by stewards. A five-second penalty was soon imposed after the Ferrari was found to have exceeded the 80kph speed limit by 0.1kph.

Unable to find a way back past Antonelli, whose hard tyres were three laps older than the Ferraris, Hamilton was also unable to build a five-second buffer to team-mate Charles Leclerc and so was relegated behind the sister Ferrari to fifth place in the final classification once the penalty was applied after the chequered flag.

Asked afterwards if he had regrets about pitting under the VSC, Hamilton told Sky Sports F1: "Yeah, I definitely don't think we should have taken the stop.

"But the call came literally just before the pit lane entry and I didn't have time to debate and you've got to trust the decision that has been taken.

"In hindsight, my tyres were totally fine. I was probably going to lose out to Max but I think I could have kept third at least.

"Then just opened up the door to obviously the penalty that I got in the end."

'The last three races of me have not been great' - Hamilton vows to cut out penalties after summer break

The pit-lane speeding sanction represented Hamilton's second stewards' penalty in as many days at the Hungaroring after he was given a three-place grid drop for impeding Piastri at the end of Q3.

That dropped the 41-year-old from second to fifth on Sunday's grid.

He had already been handed five-second penalties in each of the previous two races.

Last week in Belgium, the seven-time world champion was given the time penalty for colliding with George Russell on the opening lap, while a fortnight before at Silverstone he was given the same sanction for a jump race start.

The Briton's fifth-place finish on Sunday meant he dropped further points behind Antonelli in the Drivers' Championship, with the Italian opening up a 50-point advantage as F1 broke for summer.

Hamilton remains the Mercedes driver's closest challenger and said that he was optimistic for Ferrari's prospects over the remainder of the season. He, however, admitted that he had to avoid picking up any more stewards' penalties.

"I definitely am [optimistic]," said Hamilton. "I am massively grateful to the team because they have really done a great job in this first half.

"I think the last three races of me have not been great. Lots of mistakes. A mistake at Silverstone that cost dearly. Then obviously in the last race [in Belgium] as well. And then this weekend.

"So a lot of penalties in the last three races, so I've got to work hard to not give them any opportunity to give me any more penalties moving forwards."

The Formula 1 season resumes after the summer break with the Dutch Grand Prix from August 21-23, with every session live on Sky Sports F1. Stream Sky Sports with NOW - no contract, cancel anytime