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Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg had a heated exchange in the post-race press conference at the Hungarian Grand Prix, with Hamilton believing that the decision not to punish team mate Rosberg for setting a session best time despite double waved yellow flags.
Hamilton insisted that even if Rosberg slowed, he had not slowed down enough.
"If it is double yellow flag, you have to be prepared to stop," he said. "Nico was doing the same speed at the apex as I was doing on the previous lap, so if there happened to be a car that was slowing or a marshal on the track, it would have been pretty hard for him to slow down."
"The fact he didn't get penalised means we have to be careful because the message we are sending to drivers here, but also to the drivers in the lower categories, is it's now possible for you to lose only one tenth of a second in the double waved yellow flag section, which is one of the most dangerous scenarios."
"Before it was two tenths you're supposed to lose with one yellow flag and half a second with two yellow flags," he continued. "Going into the next race, we could be battling for pole position and we see double yellow flags and we know we only have to do a small lift, only lose one tenth of a second and we'll be fine - and go purple in the sector."
Rosberg hit back at Hamilton's arguments however, insisting what he did was within the regulations and safe.
"What you have to do with double yellow is significantly reduce your speed," he said. "I went 20km/h slower into that corner, 20km/h is a different world in an F1 car - you're going proper slow. Everything is safe."
"I lifted off 30 metres before my braking point, I was just rolling there 20km/h slower until I got to the apex. I had a much tighter line as I went in slow so I could accelerate out again," he continued. "It was a pretty clear case for the stewards and that's why I didn't get any penalty."
Calling Hamilton's comparison with his own lap "irrelevant", Rosberg spoke of the changine conditions a key factor in the decreased lap times.
"You're going to get massively quicker every lap," Rosberg said, as Hamilton hid a wry smile. "It's not like a track that is consistent."
Hungaroring - 24 July 2016
C. Leclerc
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