Budapest (AFP)

The Briton Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes), Sunday winner in Hungary of his eighth Grand Prix out of twelve played, gives "8.9 or 8.8" out of 10 in his first half of the season and wants "to try to reach the 9 or 10 "in the second half.

Q: You're fighting for Max Verstappen (Red Bull), who was in pole position. Yet you seemed to doubt your chances. Tell us.

A: "Max did a great race, like in the last GPs, and when I was behind him on hard tires, he did not seem to have a good pace - maybe he was saving them for I had a lot of grip and I said to myself: I can certainly make this tire last until the end, but the team decided to make a second pit stop and I wondered how it was going I would go out far behind him, but you have to trust your team because they have a broader point of view than you, so we made that stop. and I thought, damn it, I do not know if they're going to keep up the speed I'm going to have to go in. Then Max had more motor power and I started to say, I do not know if I was closing the gap, the team had told me that I was going to catch up with nine laps to go but it was almost until Last lap, so I had to put aside all the doubts and do the best possible turns one after the other, without wasting time. Four or five laps from the finish, I had it in my line of sight, maybe he was struggling with his tires. After that, I thought, OK, we have a chance. By far, the wall seemed impassable but the team was quietly confident and I am grateful for their hard work and decision. "

Q: Do you feel like buying yourself back from ninth place in Germany last week?

A: "Generally speaking, I do not like to talk about redemption, if that's the right word, I do not make a lot of mistakes, but last week-end was really bad by my standards. end, I felt like I was in. The qualifications did not go as planned (he was only third on the grid), but today, once I took the second I said to myself: OK, here we go, I could follow Max without any problem (...) But, of course, before the summer break, it's very encouraging for the team, especially after a week-end difficult for all of us, so a big thank you to all the guys from the factory and the guys here who came up with the strategy, they stayed very, very quiet and said: + no, no, no, we really believed that you could do it. + But for sure they were very nervous that it was not working, it's a collective success. "

Q: How do you rate your first half of the season on the eve of the summer break?

A: "I would say 8.9 or 8.8 If it were not Germany, it would be a little higher, I think the good thing to do is always to score a little harder to get things It's the best start to the season that the team has had and one of the best I've ever experienced, but there are areas we can continue to work on. There are some beautiful things in this sport, no matter how many years and days you run, there are always areas that you can improve, so let's see if we can try to reach 9 or 10 at during the second half of the season. "

Interviewed at a press conference.

© 2019 AFP