• Hungarian Grand Prix

Hamilton keen to enter break on a high

ESPN Staff
July 26, 2012 « Montezemolo 'concerned' for Ferrari | De Villota leaves hospital »
Lewis Hamilton is encouraged by the pace of the updated MP4-27 © Sutton Images
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Lewis Hamilton is certain McLaren now has the car to challenge for victory in Hungary and wants to go in to the summer break on a high.

Having led the championship ahead of the European Grand Prix, Hamilton failed to finish in Valencia and was well off the pace as he struggled to eighth at Silverstone. More bad luck befell him in Germany when an early puncture ruined his chances of a good result but he displayed impressive pace when unlapping himself against Sebastian Vettel and Hamilton said he's confident of challenging for victory at the Hungaroring.

"The car was great in Germany. We could have won," Hamilton is quoted by Metro. "I've always known the team are doing everything they can, and they did a great job to bring the upgrades they did for that race. We have clearly now shown we have the pace.

"I've still got confidence within myself - that has never wavered - it was just unfortunate what happened in Germany. It would now be good to end this part of the season on a high, and we have another shot at it this weekend."

Hamilton also said that he felt McLaren was recovering from its recent issues, with only wet weather potentially concerning him.

"Things haven't always gone our way in the first half, but I certainly feel like we're experiencing something of a turning point for the whole team. We've really stepped up and delivered the pace we needed, our strategy has been spot-on and our pitstops, despite a troubled start at the beginning of the year, are now consistently the fastest in the pitlane.

"Of course, we still have work to do to in order to fully understand the heating characteristics of the Pirelli tyres in wet weather. The current forecast is for mixed weather in Budapest, but we're gathering more and more data on the tyres, and those conditions may give us further opportunity to overcome the issues we've recently encountered."

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