Hamilton: "I want to win the title in the right way"

Lewis Hamilton has reflected on his decision to hand third place to Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas at the last corner of the Hungarian Grand Prix, stating that he hopes he will not come to regret losing points to Ferrari - and also that if he does win the title, he must do so "in the right way".

The move came after Bottas released the Briton earlier in the race, so that he could attempt to hunt down the leading Ferraris of Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel, although he ultimately failed to do so. He therefore honoured an agreement to let Bottas pass again if he could not make any progress. Hamilton does not know what the wider repercussions of the switch could be, but he is adamant that it was the best thing to do at the time.

"I don't know whether that will come to bite me on the backside or not but I said at the beginning of the year I want to win it the right way," he said. "I think it was the right way to do things. It's kind of a grey area because if I let him by and pulled him along and we were two seconds apart, then that's a much easier thing to let him back. But obviously I was seven seconds up ahead and the team are in a difficult position.

"But I think it really shows, hopefully, that I'm a man of my word and also that I am a team player. I am just as much a part of the team as anyone else and I think we are working better together than we ever have. It shows unity. I think in life if you do good things, good things do come around back to you. Hopefully in the future it will pay dividends."

Mason Hawker