F1 News
Hamilton: 'It was impossible' to catch Ocon
- GPblog.com
On the second lap after the restart at the Hungarian Grand Prix Lewis Hamilton was 14th and last after being the only one not to pit for new tyres just before the restart. It left the Mercedes driver with a considerable amount of catching up to do just to get anywhere near the podium.
Lewis, you can win this
That is exactly what Hamilton did. Steadily he managed to work his way through the field and after his second pitstop he was in fifth place, behind Fernando Alonso. At that moment his engineer Peter Bonnington let it be known that a win is a possibility. "We can do this. Ocon is 25 seconds ahead of you", he said over the onboard radio.
At that moment team boss Toto Wolff also reported on the radio, something he doesn't do very often. "Lewis, you can win this!", he said, encouraging his driver who, at that moment, was quickly closing in on Esteban Ocon, with Alonso, Carlos Sainz and Sebastian Vettel also still ahead of him.
I want what they have been smoking
During the press conference, Motorsport-Total.com asked about the moment Wolff joined Hamilton on the on-board radio. "He has a big heart, Toto, but with all due respect, when I heard that, I thought to myself, 'I want to smoke what they smoked after the race!'" The world championship leader was clearly less confident at that point.
Race winner Ocon joined in with the conversation. "He just believes in you, man," the Frenchman said. To which Hamilton responds, "You were so far ahead, I thought it was impossible to overtake you." Wolff would have been right if Alonso hadn't managed to keep the Mercedes driver behind him for so long, however. In the end, Hamilton finished just 2.7 seconds behind Ocon.