Hamilton: I just couldn’t keep up

Hamilton dropped from first to fourth on the first lap of the race in Budapest, with Max Verstappen jumping him, while Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris capitalized on the Red Bull/Mercedes fight to gain positions.

After that, the seven-time F1 Champion didn't have the firepower to recover, especially early in the race where he had to deal with overheating issues on his W14, and while he was flying on his final stint, after his second pit stop, he ran out of laps trying to catch Sergio Perez for third.

Hamilton reflected on his slow start, he told Sky Sports F1: "The start, actually the initial getaway wasn’t the worst I’ve ever had, but it obviously wasn’t as good as Max’s.

"I had a bit of wheelspin, and then obviously Max was on the inside and he ran me wide, and I got done by the two McLarens," he explained. "So definitely not a great start, kind of reminiscent of 2015 when I fell back from first.

"Then after that I just didn’t have the pace to keep up with the guys. The balance of the car was pretty awful on that first stint. A lot of understeer, to snap oversteer, through corner balance – and I just couldn’t keep up with them.

"But then bit by bit as we got through the next couple of stints, the car started to become much more drivable, and then the last stint obviously was much better," he added. "If we had the pace we had at the end (earlier), we would have been a little bit better I think through the day.

"But I’m going to take the positives from yesterday. It was an amazing effort from the team to get to where we were and to beat everybody in qualifying was really spectacular for us," Hamilton concluded, referring to his 104th pole position from Saturday in Budapest.

In the sister Black Arrow, George Russell had to start from 18th on the grid, after an error from his team in Qualifying, and drove to an eventual seventh, that became sixth after Charles Leclerc (raced to sixth) received a five-second penalty for speeding in the pitlane.

Also speaking to Sky, Russell said: "P6 was beyond expectations. The strategists were quoting P11 before the race and P7 if we maximised everything. Here we are in P6 ahead of both Ferraris, who started 12 positions ahead of us.

"The car was really quick," he pointed out. "This place is one of my favourite circuits, one of my best circuits, and as a team we generally go really well around here.

"It's no surprise how quick we are today. It's disappointing because I believe we could have been right up there with Lewis yesterday.

"As a team, if we have two cars on the front two rows, the dynamic changes totally. A small opportunity missed but I think we pulled points on P2 in the championship, so we will take it," the Briton maintained.

After beating Aston Martin to best-of-the-rest status earlier, Mercedes have now McLaren to deal with, as Lando Norris took his and the team's second podium in a row.

"McLaren maybe seem one small step ahead, probably more so on Lando's side," Russell reflected. "Lando's done a great job. But I've also been impressed with Oscar this year. He hasn't really put a foot wrong and as a rookie that's impressive. He will get there to Lando's level at some point. When that's the case, they will be a real threat.

"I think we have enough legs so far to hold them off until the end of the season. I would say we are equal second with McLaren," the driver, who took pole in Hungary last year, concluded.