Hamilton: Alonso ‘gave me hell’ in Hungarian GP F1 battle

In one of the highlights of Sunday’s incredible race, Hamilton and Alonso engaged in a thrilling battle for fourth place as the seven-time world champion attempted to turn in a late charge for victory.

The former McLaren teammates scrapped for several laps, with Hamilton attempting a number of overtakes around the outside of Alonso at Turns 2 and 4, only to be rebuffed on each occasion.

After being stuck behind the two-time world champion’s Alpine for 10 laps, Hamilton finally swept past when Alonso locked up into Turn 1.

“Fernando gave me hell out there,” said Hamilton, who suffered from dizziness and fatigue after the race and had to be seen by Mercedes’ team doctor.

“It was awesome racing, pretty on edge at least once but great racing.”

Alonso’s stunning defence played a vital role in helping teammate Esteban Ocon seal a shock maiden F1 victory, with Hamilton ultimately running out of laps to challenge the top two amid his fightback drive from 14th following Mercedes’ tyre strategy blunder.

Hamilton complained over team radio that Alonso’s defending was “dangerous” and after the race the Briton reaffirmed that he felt the fight was “a little bit over the limit” at times, even though he ultimately enjoyed the battle.

“Looking back on it, it was amazing,” he explained. “It really, really was fantastic.

“I wish the cars could follow closer and 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 overtaken 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.”

Alonso was surprised Hamilton had not been able to pass him more quickly and cheekily suggested he had taught the eight-time Hungarian GP winner new racing lines which helped him later get by Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz.