“Great wheel-to-wheel battles” – Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso rolled back the years in Hungary as they battled hard for track position.
Despite Hamilton’s Mercedes having the superior car advantage, Alonso did well to hold him off for a good ten laps. That was enough for Alonso to help his Alpine teammate Esteban Ocon win his first-ever Formula 1 race.
Hamilton did not sound happy with Alonso’s defence and complained about team radio at “at this speed” Alonso’s defending was “dangerous”.
But after the race, he only spoke in admiration for his former McLaren teammate, and how much he enjoyed battling it out with him. The pair had a tense relationship while at McLaren, and at Hungary, Hamilton won the battle of overtaking him, but Alonso helped Alpine win the war by preventing the Brit from stealing the win from Ocon.
“Fernando gave me the hell out there. It was awesome racing, pretty on edge at least once but great racing. Looking back on it, it was amazing, it really, really was fantastic.
“I wish the cars could follow closer and I’m excited for what the cars are like next year. Hopefully, that eradicates a lot of that bad drafting that we have here.
“But yeah, it’s a really difficult circuit to overtake in general, and to follow particularly in that last sector but great, great wheel-to-wheel battles. It literally was wheel-to-wheel at least once and I don’t really have much more to say about it.
“When you’re racing against a two-time World Champion, he probably is one of the hardest drivers – but fair. I’d say today was a little bit over on the limit.”
