Hamilton shocked by Mercedes instructions

Lewis Hamilton says he was “very, very shocked” to be asked by his Mercedes team to move over and allow team-mate and title rival Nico Rosberg to pass him during the tumultuous Hungarian Grand Prix.

Sunday’s incident, one of at least two in which Mercedes tried to persuade Hamilton to help Rosberg, came after 47 laps of a 70-laps race won by Australian Daniel Ricciardo for Red Bull.

The two Mercedes drivers, who finished third and fourth, were on different strategies and Rosberg, on a three-stop plan, was using faster soft tyres at the time and had a further pit stop to make.

“Obviously I am aware that I was in the same race as him, just because he had one more stop than me doesn’t mean I am not in same race,” said Hamilton afterwards.

“If I let him pass, then he could pull away and come back at me later.

“I was very, very shocked that the team would ask me to do that. He didn’t get close enough to overtake, I was not going to lift off and lose ground to Fernando (Alonso) or Daniel (Ricciardo), so it was a bit strange.”

The Briton finished third behind two-time champion Spaniard Alonso of Ferrari. Rosberg came fourth.

Asked “not to hold him up” on lap 47, and reminded of the message on lap 52, Hamilton replied: “I’ll let him through if he gets closer…. I’m not slowing down for Nico.”

In turn, Rosberg asked via radio: “Why is he not letting me through?” and was told: “He’s had the message.”

Hamilton, who trimmed Rosberg’s championship lead from 14 to 11 points, said: “This is damage limitation. I was just pushing as hard as I could to get as high as I could.”

Rosberg kept his composure afterwards, but was clearly irritated and said he could have passed Hamilton on the final lap when he had a clear tyres advantage.

“I’m very annoyed that I wasn’t able to make it happen. Lewis made a mistake, I tried around the outside but it didn’t work out.”

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