Bottas praises Hamilton for sporting gesture

Valtteri Bottas believes there aren't many team mates fighting for the championship title who would have relinquished a position as Lewis Hamilton did today.

With Ferrari's dominance in the Hungarian GP appearing to wane slightly after the pit stop rotations, and Hamilton right on the back of his third placed team mate, Mercedes instructed Bottas to let the Brit through in a bid to catch the leading Scuderia duo.

Hamilton's pace fell short of challenging the red cars however, and having promised to relinquish the position back to Bottas if he failed, he did just that on the final lap of the race, handing the Finn the final spot on the podium.

"It was really tricky today. The pace was not so much a problem. But once you get within 1.5 seconds to the car in front of you it becomes so difficult to close the gap," explained Bottas.

"And that track position was a big benefit for Ferrari today. Even though Sebastian was struggling, no-one could pass him.

• Hamilton: no regrets about handing position back to Bottas

"We tried as a team to swap positions, but Lewis couldn't get past them either. We didn't gain any points but I'm glad we tried it.

"I was promised that Lewis would let me back if it didn't work out. I was struggling with the back markers so the gap to Lewis became bigger than I wanted.

"But Lewis and the team kept their promise and we swapped positions back in the last lap."

Bottas admitted that Hamilton's promise, which entailed losing points to Vettel in the championship standings, was a gesture to be commended.

"I don't think every team-mate would do that in a championship fight, so I think that was really nice of him and it shows that he is a real team player.

"Our situations still is not too bad with regards to the points and the championship standing. Lewis and me are still in the fight."

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